Proof I'll Return
by DemonHunteress
Summary: Lara returns home after the events of AoD, unsure of what has happened to Kurtis, and still not convinced that Karel is definitely dead. Falling asleep in her study, she wakes to find there is someone in her house, and he wants something back. LCxKT
1. Returning the favour

**A/N**: This is a story I had originally begun on The Sanitarium, and was pursuaded to post it here too. My screen name over there is Demon Huntress. Just in case you didn't know, I own nothing, nada, zilcho, except for the plot. This is an extremely watered down version of the original, more adult story, for obvious reasons. If you think you can handle the complete version, email me and I'll send you the link to the Sanitarium, where it lives. ;) As always, constructive critisism and reviews are extremely appreciated! I'll be posting the rest of this story within the next few days. One last thing; this story has cursing and adult themes so read on at your own risk!

* * *

**Proof I'll Return **

Chapter one: Returning The Favour

By DH and dedicated to Filthy bunny for all our horny ramblings inspirational chats. Love girl!

* * *

A storm raged outside in the night, thundering against the closed window of the Library.

Lara sat, legs propped up on the desk in front of her, laptop open, various newspaper articles and old manuscripts littering the surface. She closed her aching eyes in the harsh light of the laptop in front of her and leaned her head back, intending on resting them for just a few moments…

_She tensed beneath his grip, the hard, cold steel pressed to her throat a sharp contrast to the warm hand that trailed slowly down her arm, sparking at her nerve endings, leaving a path of burning heat behind it. A shiver coursed her body as it continued its lingering route across her stomach to flick the other gun from its holster. It was only when his hand went into her backpack that her sense-fogged mind snapped back to reality, and she whirled around to face him, to knock him out and escape- _

-and she stared back into eyes of such an intense colour…

Lara jerked forward, waking to the sound of a particularly loud thunderclap. She glanced at the time. _Bugger, I fazed out for a few minutes there. _She stood, intending to clear the mess of papers away before going for a shower and heading to bed, and it was then she noticed the window was open.

It definitely hadn't been open before she'd closed her eyes a short while earlier.

She slid her Desert Eagle from its holster, walking stealthily towards the window, and checking outside. There was water on the windowsill, like someone had crept through it.

Noticing the small trail of water that led out of the doorway, her senses became heightened at the prospect of danger, the sound of her heartbeat becoming louder. _Someone could have just killed me,_ Lara thought, incredulously. She berated herself for not having been more alert, but was now more preoccupied with the knowledge that someone was in her house.

She edged her way cautiously to the doorway, arms tensed, gun in front of her, and began to follow the barely visible imprint of water droplets that marked her path. She turned a corner swiftly, brandishing the Desert Eagle ahead of her, hazel eyes narrowed on the trail that continued on to the center of the hall, and vanished.

Not a single drop of water anywhere else to see on the carpet. She stood at the end of her trail, puzzled.

Then a single bead of water fell from the ceiling and hit her cheek, traversing in a cold path down one side of her face.

Her heart slammed to a halt against her ribcage as she craned her head slowly upwards towards the shadowy ceiling. A dark male figure was perched high above her, skillfully balancing himself in a split jump between the rafters, strong legs against each wall of the narrow corridor.

Pointing the gun at him she made to aim, but he swiftly dropped to the floor in a crouch, sprinting off in the other direction. Lara gave chase, turning the corner to see the hallway was a dead end, pushing herself faster to catch up with the man in front of her, to trap him there. _He's going to hit the wall,_ she thought, as it loomed up on him, Lara close behind, reluctant to shoot unless she had to.

After all, Winston had only just got the old bloodstains out of the carpet.

As she skidded to a halt to avoid crushing into it herself, he ran directly for it, showing no signs of stopping, and kicking powerful legs off the wall, he ran up it to do a complete back flip to land straight behind Lara, dust rising from the carpet at the impact of hard boots. The speed of his movement caught her by surprise and she was pushed roughly against the wall, her own gun wrenched from her grasp and turned on her.

"We have _got_ to stop meeting each other like this, Lara," His voice was husky in her ear, out of breath.

Lara's eyes widened as she realized who the man pinning her to the wall was.

_"Kurtis?"_ she asked in disbelief, as the last time she'd seen him he had just used telekinesis to throw her from a room with a homicidal mutant in it. She suddenly understood how he had just managed the unnatural burst of strength, and had telekinetically pushed his muscles up the wall and into an unfair advantage.

"It would've been nice of you to ask that _before_ you tried blowing a hole in my head," he replied, voice filled with the familiar sarcasm, not loosening the firm grip he had on the gun or Lara. "Can I let you go now without worrying you'll try rearrange my face?"

"You should be dead- there was so much blood-" she paused as a thought occurred to her. "How do I know you're not Karel?" she demanded, turning her head against the wall to try and look behind her, struggling to ignore the sensation his wet, lean body pressed up against her was having on her skin. She could just see his face as his clear azure gaze narrowed.

"I could ask you the same question. But I guess your gonna just have to trust me," he added pointedly.

Lara tried to recall where she had heard those words before.

_"You're trusting me?" he had asked, head turned to the side, dark hair framing the beautiful crystal eyes observing her with confusion._

"Would you mind telling me why you were sneaking around my house, or have you decided you missed stalking me and rendering me defenceless, as you invade my personal space?"

"As much as I enjoy these little get-togethers of ours, this isn't a personal visit. I came for something of mine. For once, _I'm_ not the one doing the stealing."

"You're right, you're probably not Karel. No one could impersonate such a cocky bastard as you," she spat at him.

He gave a short deep laugh, his breath lightly fanning her ear. She found herself watching his lips as they curved upwards, such a small movement altering his masculine face into an irritatingly sexy smirk. It confused her, making her want to punch it straight out the back of his head, and at the same time- somewhere in a dark corner of her mind was forming other ideas about what she could be doing to it.

Gaining control over her thoughts and looking back over her shoulder to see him, she raised one eyebrow at him, eyes still focused on the lips that were a tantalizingly short distance away, and added; "If this is how you greet someone for a business visit, I'd hate to see you making a personal one. Now would you please back off? You're making me wet."

"Didn't know I had that effect on you, Lara," he replied conversationally, eyes sparkling darkly, and stepped back from her, still holding the gun. She shivered in the absence of the heat his body had provided through his wet clothes as he moved away.

Keeping the gun and both eyes trained on Lara, he cocked his head to the side and spun the Desert Eagle around one finger thoughtfully for a minute, considering her and how likely she was to castrate him if he handed back her gun. He seemed to reach a conclusion as he stopped the barrel in his palm, offering it back to her, end first.

She took it warily, eyeing the Boran X in his holster, knowing full well he would be more than capable of taking her on if she turned on him. It was one of the things she admired about Kurtis; he was the one man who had proved himself her equal, in strength of body and mind.

"What was it you were insinuating I'd stolen from you?"

"My Chirugai."

"You mean that disk thing you left behind? It's in the Library. Come on."

She kept slightly behind him on the short walk back to the room, one hand on the gun at her hip, keeping a careful eye on his soaked form. _I'm only staring so intently at how his wet clothes cling to the muscles on his body so I can catch on to any moves he's planning to make really quickly,_ Lara inwardly tried convincing herself.

Her conscience wasn't having any of it.

* * *

They arrived back into the library and she crossed over to her desk chair, reaching into the jacket hanging there to pull out a heavy metal disk with five holes adorning the sides.

"Here you are, your frisbee. Go have fun now, and try not to cut yourself on it," she told him sardonically.

"It's not a frisbee." He raised a hand towards it and five curved blades sprang from the side of the disc with a deadly "ching", causing Lara to drop it for fear it might detach her wrists.

It never hit the ground.

"Frisbees don't do _that_." He smiled sideways at her.

A warm orange glow surrounded the Chirugai as it hovered a few feet off the floor, and it spun effortlessly through the air towards its owner. It gave him a kind of authority as he held it, like a scythe to a reaper. He ran a rough palm over the surface, before lacing his fingers into the gaps.

"Nice trick. Now why didn't you just magic it straight to you?"

He looked up at her, striking blue eyes from beneath dark spikes of hair. "Why were you carrying it 'round in your jacket?"

"I asked first. And why did you come here?"

"I came 'cause I needed to find out what happened in the Strahov after you left."

"Long story," she replied shortly, deliberately riling him with vague details, "What happened to you? You left an awful lot of blood behind for someone who just got up and walked away…" she looked at him suspiciously, still not completely convinced he wasn't Karel. After all, who could have survived that amount of blood loss?

He sighed. "I can see this is gonna' take a while. Croft, why don't you just answer me straight? I'll tell you what you want to know, if you tell me. Deal?"

She paused, deep in thought for a moment. Slowly, she nodded.

He stepped closer. "This's the fastest way I know. Hold on." The last sentence sounded like it should have included the words "Its gonna be a bumpy ride".

He took another step in, and she looked at him. Behind his blue eyes, there almost seemed a dark storm growing, and his eyes slid out of focus as he laid a hand gently on the side of her face, long fingers splayed out against her jaw line. She watched his eyes flicker shut behind dark, spidery lashes and her world went momentarily black.

Images began to flow rapidly past her eyes, like the constant flicker of a bad television. It was almost like seeing her life flash before her during a near death experience, and Lara had had her fair share of those. She caught sight of a few visions, Eckhardt bargaining for Kurtis's life, Boaz rushing towards her, and Kurtis boosting her to safety, remaining behind to fight the huge creature.

She was suddenly aware of another figure in her subconscious, a solitary static figure, which stayed watching the memories alongside her. She recognised it was Kurtis.

A final few reflections went past her; Karel transforming into Kurtis, trying to trick her, beside her, she felt Kurtis's surprise penetrate her mind; her attaching the Sanglyph to the Sleeper, the room exploding alongside Karel; and returning to Boaz's lair only to find Kurtis's Chirugai in a pool of blood. Outside of her subconscious, her hands tightened their grip on him.

Sadness and then hope as it sprang to life in her trembling hand. Darkness, complete, consuming darkness. Memories of Egypt, yelling for help, nobody hearing her. Somewhere beyond where she was now, her body felt a warm touch draw her closer.

Suddenly, a different set of pictures began to fill up the empty space left behind by hers, new ones that were definitely not her own. She was confused for a moment until she realized who the subject of all the images were- Kurtis.

She was in Kurtis's subconscious, reeling through his memories. Fighting Boaz, for so long before killing her, watching another bug-like creature crawl out from the great hulking corpse, shooting the bug down. She felt- Kurtis felt pain, exhaustion, and then pity as he walked over to Boaz with a gun in his hand. Turning away, only to be stabbed. Unbelievable pain, darkness, and then light. Endless wandering through corridors, occasionally slipping in and out of consciousness, and eventually finding a way out. Trying to maneuver a bike to the nearest motel, and sleep, infinite, restless sleep.

Haunting dreams of his past, tied up in a room for days, fighting through demons three times the size of Boaz, his father, dead in a pool of blood, eyes wide and glassy.

She felt rough fingers twitch gently against her neck as she came back into herself. They both opened their eyes with a gasp, surfacing from invisible waters to the sweet feeling of air caressing their throats. Kurtis snapped back into his body and swayed backwards slightly, pulling his arms away from her to catch his balance. He regained his stance, shaking his head slightly to disperse the cloudy feel he always got when separating mind from body.

"Whoa." Was all she could say for a few seconds, if somewhat breathlessly, before salvaging some presence of mind from the mist that hung about her head. "What were those last few images?"

"I figure I saw something about Egypt in your memory you wanted to keep private by mistake- I was returning the favour," he replied, catching his breath.

They left it at that with the unspoken agreement: We're even.

She looked him up and down, gradually unearthing a new respect for his abilities. "What else can you do that you haven't told me?"

_Oh, nothing much else. Why? _Asked a deep voice in her head, innocence concealing a thick layer of sarcasm. All she could do was stare blankly at him, full lips parted in surprise. Had she just imagined that? That's it; she was officially losing her mind. And it was all his fault. She hated that he could do that to her, make her feel completely defenseless, even with pistols strapped to both thighs.

_Then just shoot me if you hate me so much,_ he smirked at her.

Desperately willing herself not to think of how sexy his smile was, Lara put a hand to her head. _Okay, okay! Stop it with the brain rape already! I already have a hard enough time wrestling with my conscience trying not to kill you, without both of you breathing down my neck!_

_You have a conscience? How lovely for you._

_Yes, it's that little thing in the back of your head that tells you not to set things on fire. You should listen to it sometime, or have you strangled it already?_

They glared silently at each other, in a silent battle, neither wanting to back down first.

Nearby, Winston passed the door on his way to wash the laundry. Pausing at the door for a moment, he saw Lara and a strange man, both looking as though they were trying to make the other spontaneously combust with the sheer power of their gaze. They just stood there for ages, fighting some unknown internal struggle. Winston raised an eyebrow, causing a hundred different wrinkles to reassemble on his face, shrugged, and carried on with the basket full of pyjamas.

_Hang on,_ Lara thought, recalling a memory of Kurtis's she had witnessed a few moments earlier. _You were stabbed right through the stomach._

He looked quickly away. No answer.

"Take off your shirt."

He just turned to look at her, his beautiful eyes blank.

"Your shirt, you know, that thing you wear-"

"I know what a shirt is, I'm not stupid."

A hundred scathing remarks to that statement that were busy coming together in her head were suddenly, miraculously gone as he crossed his arms over his stomach and peeled the soaked shirt away from his body and gently free of the wound, the conditioned muscles of his arms and torso tightening and relaxing with the movement.

He took a sharp breath at the harsh scrape of the fabric against the deep gash when he pulled it away from his back. She narrowed her eyes and leant over him to see his back.

"Holy sh- Kurtis- It goes straight through you!"

"You don't say."

"How are you walking around?" She stepped closer to examine the vicious wound that marred his one side of his tanned flesh, "That must be so painful- how is it healing so fast?" She brushed it lightly with her fingertips.

He took a sharp breath and caught her wrist with a strong hand. Their gaze locked for a lingering moment, something indescribable shimmering out through the depths of his baby blue eyes. The pads of his rough fingers and the strength and confidence of his grip on her forearm made her skin burn in a way that was alarmingly sensual.

Lara turned away, breaking his eye contact and his hold. She picked up a med kit and laid the contents out on the table, trying as hard as she could not to look at the shirtless warrior sitting next to her, clad in only damp clothes that clung to his shape in a way that made her want to peel them all off him and -

_Argh!_ Lara mentally slapped herself in the head.

She picked up some cleaning fluid and set to work on the damage. He sat silently still, trying to ignore the sensation of her breath flowing warmly across his abdomen.

"What's this?" she asked, trailing a finger down a black marking that curved over his hipbone and disappeared below his waistband.

"It's a tattoo. All the Lux Veritatis are marked like this at a certain age. It starts here-" he twisted slightly, showing her his back.

Lara's eyes widened when she saw the intricate black markings sprawling over his broad shoulders, down one side of his back and waist, to disappear into the waistband of the combat trousers he wore. Kurtis seemed the type of man to have a tattoo, dark and mysterious, but the astonishing thing was to see one that was so complex, elaborate, and beautiful on such a hardened, war marked body.

She traced it with her fingers, from left shoulder to right, down his right side-

He shivered. Why did he feel so naked right now with only his shirt off?

She noticed his reaction and smiled to herself, before quickly returning to wrapping up the injury. She got up on the table on her knees to wrap it around and fasten it-

_Bad move._

She paused, her right knee between his legs, and their bodies so close, she could almost feel the heat of his skin radiate through her clothes. He remained extremely still, looking straight ahead at eye level with her lips, the atmosphere crackling with electricity.

She sat back on her thighs, only to find this pressed her leg more firmly against his. Her skin flared and as she looked up at him-

_-and she stared back into eyes of such an intense color…_

They pressed against each other, neither remembering who kissed who first, all that Lara's misty head could register was Kurtis. His warm hands, his delicious scent, the silky touch of his skin over the hard, conditioned muscles of his body, all other trains of thought were lost, as Kurtis filled her senses, his mouth moving hotly against her own. She pushed closer to him, fisting her hands into his dark hair, pressing as close as possible, straddling him. Legs either side of his thighs, she gripped his tighter with her own, forcing them closer.

They pressed against each other, neither remembering who kissed who first, all that Lara's hazy head could register was Kurtis. His warm hands, his delicious scent, the silky touch of his skin over the hard, conditioned muscles of his body, all other trains of thought were lost, as Kurtis filled her senses, his mouth moving hotly against her own. She pushed closer to him, fisting her hands into his dark hair, pressing as close as possible.

He made a soft noise against her mouth, of either pain or pleasure, but at this point the lines between each were so blurred that as he caught her bottom lip in his mouth and bit lightly, she didn't even notice she had cried out loud.

* * *

She awoke the next morning in her own bed. Kurtis must have carried her there that night. She sat up and looked around the room for him, but he wasn't there. Lara felt her stomach fill with lead. She had lost him again, but this time he must have chosen to leave. This somehow made her feel worse.

With a heavy heart she pulled aside the covers to get out of bed, but not before noticing something glinting on the pillow next to her.

She picked it up and a smile lit up her face.

His Chirugai.

He had left it for her, so she would know he hadn't gone far, and he would be back. Proof he'd return. As if it had sensed her touching it, it started to glow a warm orange colour, like fire. She felt it pull her arm towards the door, the familiarity of the situation making her want to keep smiling and never stop.

She let it pull her out of the door and into the ensuite next door where she could hear a shower running.

Lara's smile became a seductive one, and she stepped into the soft light of the morning sun that lit up the bathroom.

_I won't let him win this time…_ she thought with determination.

Her conscience _still_ wasn't having any of it.


	2. Running With Your Eyes Closed

**Part Deux!**

* * *

**Proof I'll Return **

Chapter two: Running With Your Eyes Closed

* * *

His combats lay slung over the top of the shower rail. A pair of heavy leather boots sat just outside. The morning sun, which poured through the window like liquid gold, outlined Kurtis' athletic physique against the shower curtain. 

She leaned against the doorframe and watched his dark shadow as he leaned into the rush of the water, letting it flow and caress over his body, waking him. Unaware of her presence, he lifted his head back, ran his hands into his hair, and breathed out a deep relaxing sound.

She was about to pull the curtain aside and join him when she heard the heavy oak of her front door smash in.

The sound echoed cavernously throughout the mansion, and then, silence.

At least that was what it sounded like to the untrained ear. After years of careful trap evasion, Lara's hearing was honed to impressive standards. She could detect the soft shuffling of more than one person as it echoed around the hall… up the stairway… along the corridor… through the door.

By instinct, she leapt back towards her bed to pull twin pistols from her bedside cabinet. Yanking on a shirt and knickers, she searched around for shorts while tugging on the nearest pair of shoes she could find.

Kurtis strode out of the bathroom silently, wet-haired and combat clad, dog tags swinging against his bare chest as he tied up his boots. He jerked his belt tight around his narrow waist and holstered the Boran X in it. Closing his eyes and holding his hands out before him, the whole room became painted in hues of red as his subconscious slid through the bedroom door and into the corridor beyond...

Lara abandoned her fruitless search for some leg coverage when Kurtis snapped back into his body. He held a finger to her lips to silence her.

His voice spoke calmly and businesslike in her mind. _We have to get out of here- there's mercenaries in the walkway on the other side of this door, but there's an open window at the end, _he turned his head to smile sideways at her, and there was a click as he loaded his gun. _Feel like a little target practice? _

Ladies first. Lara grinned and kicked the door out.

* * *

The first unusual thing the soldiers were confronted by upon entering the mansion was the elderly man in nightclothes carrying two AK-47's( alongside the reels of ammo hung about his person), a shotgun strapped to his back, a bulletproof tea tray strapped to his front and an unmarked bag. For his age, Winston had very quick reflexes.

"Stay back! There is a bomb in this bag!" He shook the dark bag full of pajamas at them with the wild look in his eyes usually associated with people who shout at passers-by from doorways, drinking from brown unmarked bags containing strong liquors.

Hesitant, and momentarily unsure of how to deal with armed, and possibly insane senior citizens, they kept aim, but didn't fire. This gave Winston a split second to pull on the antler of the moose head above him and fall into the safety of the emergency bunker that opened below.

The secure metal hatch slammed shut behind him.

The appearance of a barely-dressed female was the next thing to take them by surprise. Encounters with a half naked member of the opposite sex were not a regular occurrence in mercenary work. The instant it took them to register that what they were seeing was real, and not a consequence of too many days away from the fairer sex, gave Lara a wide enough window to calculate the odds and start firing.

_Two down for me… still hiding under the bed are we? _Lara thought, directly at Kurtis.

He stepped out of the doorway where he had been leaning, and smiled. _Duck. _

Lara, by reflex, ducked. The broken bedroom door, lifted by some invisible force, flew over her head, hitting the soldiers who rounded the corner to their right. It splintered on contact with a nasty crack.

_Four. And I haven't even broken a sweat. _He mock-saluted her, and without looking back- sprinted down the corridor to the next corner.

_That's because- _she shot one down-_ you're-_ a roundhouse kick to the head of another soldier broke his neck- _a cheater. _

"Five!" she yelled triumphantly as they reached the window. Kurtis turned around on the spot and faced her.

"Seven," he replied and, maintaining her eye contact, hoisted the gun above his head and shot twice vertically into the rafters, with barely a blink. A pair of bodies fell together from the ceiling with a disdainful "thunk".

She watched his grin quickly fade and his gaze slip past her through the window. Before she could turn to look, he pinned her to the ground just as shots ripped apart the space her head had previously occupied. She looked up wide-eyed at him.

"Thanks," she panted, pulling herself upright.  
"Don't worry," he began, breathing heavily, "it was just an excuse to get on top of you again."  
"Excuse me if we are interrupting something…" A calm male voice announced.

Lara and Kurtis turned slowly, filled with dread.

Joachim Karel stepped in through the window, crossing his arms serenely behind his back as he stood before them.

"Ever the romantic, Trent," he spoke sarcastically, "Even when we held you captive you still called out her name in your sleep."  
Kurtis rubbed his shoulder absently and returned Karel's sarcastic gaze.

"You know me, a big softie at heart," he moved his hands fleetingly behind Lara's back and she felt something touch her backside gently.

_I don't_ believe_ him sometimes, _she thought furiously, _standing in front of a lunatic murderer, and he still can't focus on anything except-_

Then she felt him slip something into the waistband of her knickers, and rest it against her spine, covered by the long shirt she had hastily pulled on. It was cold and hard against the small of her back. Then he tapped her back once. There was a small sharp pain, which she ignored.

Karel seemed not to notice his quick slight of hand; either that or he chose to ignore it. Mortals were messy, disgusting creatures, and he did not like to think too much about their mating habits and the suchlike. It made his pale skin crawl.

More mercenaries filed in and circled them, guns loaded and fully prepared to shoot. There was no way out of this one.

"I am afraid you both will be coming along with me… and Mr. Trent, your glaive please, we don't want any dim-witted tricks from you."

A guard who had been admiring the back of Lara's profile noticed something was not right… he reached forward to pull her shirt out of the way of her back.

Kurtis flicked his hand and the Chirugai spun above his head in a makeshift halo, pulsating in a warm orange glow.  
"Who, me? Tricks? Never," another barely imperceptible flick of his index and the guard had his head abruptly severed. His expression became hard, "but if you'd please keep your guards from staring at poor defenceless Lara here, I'm sure we'll be a lot more cooperative."

Karel gave the signal for the guard's body to be taken away, along with the suddenly docile Chirugai. He stepped right up to Kurtis, their bodies inches apart. Leaning in he breathed with quiet menace, "Careful, Trent, I know what buttons to press," he reached around to Kurtis' back quickly; Lara almost mistook it to be a pat on the back. Kurtis' hand caught Karel's by the wrist just as swiftly before it reached his intricately tattooed shoulder blade.

Karel looked into his eyes for a moment and seemed to find something there that at once enthralled and uneased him. He backed away with a slight smile tilting the corners of his pale mouth, before the mask went back on and his face became businesslike and apathetic. Kurtis' intense glare never once let up.

"Lock them up in the gym. I have a tremendous urge to have a look around the famous Croft estate... who knows what I may find?"

He turned his back on them and they were led away, the occasional unwary guard being tripped up or thumped viciously as they struggled all the way to the gym.

An hour later and from her position (tied in a very unladylike way across the side of a climbing frame) Lara could only imagine what fun Karel was having reading through all of her confidential files… everything she had ever gathered on the Cabal, Lux Veritatis, _Kurtis…_

She looked across at Kurtis, who had had a blindfold put on him after a few incidents with the guards, some telekinesis, and a few large and heavy weights. Many of them were now either mildly concussed, sporting black eyes, cut lips or in one case involving a jumping horse, a few cracked ribs. She had to admire the man's spirit.

He was tied to a chair, legs spread in a typical masculine sitting position, the dog tags still intact against his taut bare chest. His arms were tied behind him, biceps stretched against the wood. Apart from the blindfold and ropes around his chest and legs, he looked for all the world as if he was simply reclining in a chair at his own ease.

She tried reaching out to Kurtis mentally, trying to talk to him through her mind, but she was completely unsure of how to do it. She screwed her eyes shut and tried her hardest, opening up to any voices in her mind, thinking desperately and pointedly in Kurtis' direction. He must have felt something because his head snapped over in her direction, facing her dead on. Even with the blindfold on, she had a feeling he did not need eyes to see. Beneath the black fabric, the corner of his mouth tilted into a half smile, and a shiver ran up her spine.

She felt a whisper of something unearthly brush up her legs and something spoke softly in the back of her mind;

_Close your eyes. _

She looked to Kurtis, unsure if it was her imagination. With a jolt she saw him visibly nod. As if he had seen her look at him for confirmation.

She closed her eyes and abruptly they opened again as he touched her somewhere deep inside.

Kurtis had been trying his best to hear where the guards were, but they were soon catching on to the fact that even with his eyes covered, his hearing had deadly accuracy. The slightest noise on their part was soon followed by something extremely painful being flung into something extremely painful.

He felt something faint brush softly at the edge of his mind; it had a sweet taste, a scent, something about it that told him it was Lara. He reached out to her and then an idea began to form in his mind. The guards were so busy concentrating on him… what could he get Lara to do to give him enough time to get himself untied…?

He had a thought, and a smile grew on his face.

_Close your eyes, _he told her.

He nodded. She closed them.

Lara's eyes flew wide and she only thought of attempting to silence the first moan long after it had escaped her lips. She could barely see, as her dark eyes rolled back in her head and white-hot spots danced before her vision. She clenched her fists and pulled against the ropes, the sounds of her increasingly heavy breathing filled her ears and she noticed another noise in the background.

* * *

That was when she realized that noise was herself crying out.

She tried to pull her legs up against her chest as electric jolts of pleasure pulsed up her legs to the center of her solar plexus. It hurt to be in so much ecstasy, she felt as though she was about to go insane, split open, burst into blossom and flame, and she screamed. She wanted it to stop and never end, all at the same time.

* * *

The three mercenaries left from their earlier encounters with telekinesis sat up immediately at the first noise. There was a bang, and a loud unearthly sound. They turned their attention from the male to look at the woman. She kicked out against her restraints; her low moans becoming higher, intense cries as she screamed for someone to end her pain- if that is what it could be called.

She sounded like she was calling out at once in pain and intense pleasure, sounded as if she was dying and climaxing all a once. The things Kurtis heard in his head from her right then were enough to raise an eyebrow even from him. She desperately wanted to kill him and have him inside of her at the exact same instant.

The guards walked quietly up to Lara, puzzled, and looked to each other for ideas.

One guard spoke. "What's go-"

And that was the last thing any of them heard. The knife Kurtis had hidden in Lara's waistband loosed itself, and their own personal worlds all went black as they met their maker. The disembodied knife cut Lara's restraints and then went to Kurtis.

Lara fell to the floor, her legs giving way under her. She sat with her forehead touching the floor, finding its solidarity comforting. Blood dripped to the floor from her lips. She had bitten it so hard it bled.

She felt a cool hand touch her shoulder and energy flooded into her. The hand was steady and calm, and she was able to follow it up, and get to her feet.

* * *

Kurtis laid a hand on her shoulder and poured power into her trembling form. He could feel her skin covered in a thin layer of sweat beneath her shirt. She would freeze like that. He pulled a pair of combats that he had taken from one of the decapitated mercenaries over her shoes and gently up her legs as she stood, fastening the zip and button all in one quick moment.

As his hands brushed her legs when he pulled the trousers on her, they left white-hot marks of pure sensation along her sensitive skin. It was all she could do to restrain herself from shoving him up against a wall. He looked up at her, and must have shared that same image. Their connected gaze crackled and he seemed to be more looking _into _her, than_ at _her. He gently brushed a hand across her jaw and up her cheek, sweeping away the blood. The softness of his gesture made her heart ache in a way she had never felt before.

"We have work to do." His voice was low and broke slightly as he spoke, and this almost made her lose it at him. She inhaled deeply, if shakily, already feeling the power return to her limbs, and with great self-control, turned away from him towards the door. Kurtis let out a breath he did not even know he was holding. If she had started something, he knew all his willpower would have dissolved.

Kurtis freed his chirugai from the titanium box that it had been placed in, and threw Lara one of the fallen guard's guns.

Very carefully not looking at each other, and even more careful not to touch, they walked through the side door that led to the indoor pool.

* * *

Lara ran to the diving board and pushed the hidden switch beneath it. What originally had looked like an ornate square tile on the pool floor, suddenly disappeared from view and Lara jumped off the diving board in a graceful swan dive, through the square. Kurtis got on one knee on the board, before following, his athletic body arcing as he broke the water with barely a splash.

They swam forwards for a few seconds, and then upwards to the surface. As the water poured down his skin, his eyes began to adjust. He looked around at the cavernous, dark room with surprise, it seemed to have been carved out of the original rock that the house had been built on. Other passages led onto this room, from other escape routes in the house, he presumed. As they came to the center of the room, Lara picked up a bag full of pyjamas and smiled. She picked a corridor and walked on.

Lara and Kurtis emerged, rather suddenly, on a large piece of wood that extended to the other side of the wall. Kurtis looked down into the pre-morning gloom that spread out below them. They were in the rafters of the garage, looking down at four mercenaries who each stood facing a doorway that led into the house. Stupidly, they had not thought of any other possible entries to the room. Lara indicated to a cars headlamps and then to her eyes, back to the car roof, and then the chirugai. Kurtis immediately understood.

A small key lifted itself off the shelf and drifted easily through the bars that protected it from burglars. It slipped in though the open window of a custom-made, drop-top Aston Martin, and slid into the ignition.

The engine roared and the headlights flashed obscenely into the dawn-adjusted eyes of the guards, effectively blinding them. It growled and tore forward, running down two of the men. As it neared Lara and Kurtis, the chirugai slashed an enormous gap in the fabric roof of the car, and they jumped together, straight for the open roof.

* * *

The garage door switch flicked and it began to pull up slowly.

Too slowly.

"Kurtis…" Lara said, eyes wide, too quiet to be heard over the noise, and then yelled, "KURTIS! WE'RE NOT GOING TO-"

"SHUT UP AND DUCK!" He forced her head down as he clamped the wheel between his knees and lifted his hands from it.

There was a noise like the worlds biggest can opener opening the worlds biggest can of Heinz Baked Beans.

Lara looked behind her to see the door had been ripped off its hinges, and was now lying in a crumpled heap behind them. She saw the torn roof blowing energetically behind the car, and she saw freedom ahead. And bizarrely, she began to laugh like she had never laughed before.

Kurtis looked at her, a smile gracing her face, her hair streaming freely behind her in the wind, and perhaps because they were both hysterical with adrenaline, maybe just because there was simply nothing else to do, for the first time in years, he laughed too.


	3. Ink Is Thicker Than Blood

**

* * *

**

**Proof I'll Return **

Chapter three: Ink is thicker than blood

* * *

He drove, for what seemed like hours, straight into darkness, putting miles between them and Karel. He rounded back on himself occasionally just in case they were being followed, though that seemed extremely unlikely. They had got a big head start.

Kurtis pressed on the CD player, absently beating the rhythm of "Deep" by Nine Inch Nails into the steering wheel as he drove. Lara had never really listened to the words before, and she smiled as she watched Kurtis' strong hands confidently spin the wheel and drum out the slow, pulsating beat, his bare muscled arms and torso moving with the vehicle. The only other sound was the low throb of the engine as it twisted powerfully through the streets.

_  
All I can do,  
Driving on through  
Into you  
Deep, deep, deep, deep  
You're slipping through  
I come into  
Into you  
Deep, deep, deep, deep _

* * *

Turning a corner, he saw Lara smiling at him out of the corner of his eye and he smiled his casual smirk, and threw her a sideways look, his baby blue eyes suddenly seeming a lot darker.

Finally pulling out of the increasingly inhabited countryside, they passed through a large town. Kurtis turned into an avenue between the packed buildings and their gaudy neon signs.

Stopping outside an expensive-looking hotel, he swiftly led the way through the doors into an empty, spacious, modern hall and up the stairs, arriving to a door on the third floor. Putting a hand to the lock, his hand tensed and as he flicked it, there was an audible click as the door swung open.

"Kurtis!" She looked at him incredulously as he illegally entered the vacant hotel room. Her only answer was a shrug as he disappeared onto the balcony. He returned shortly with a back sports bag, one he used to carry some of his things when he travelled. It had obviously seen a lot of that.

It was glowing a rapidly fading shade of orange, which told her it had been summoned here by telekinesis. He dumped it unceremoniously on the bed and rummaged through it.

"I've got no nightclothes… I might have another shirt you can wear…" he trailed off as Lara produced the bag of pyjamas from where they had been tucked into her belt. She pulled out a pair of pyjama bottoms wordlessly and threw them to him as she went to the bathroom to change into her own.

It struck her as unusual that she felt she needed to change where he could not see her, after last night, but even she didn't know the reason why, so she pushed the thought aside.

When she returned he turned to face her. The black pyjama bottoms that had been made to fit her curves hung distractingly from his narrow waist. As he turned, the black design inked into his skin twisted with him, curving over the V shape of where his hipbones met muscle, and disappeared into the waistband. She felt a tremendous urge to slide them off him and explore its every detail all over again.

"Thanks," he said, and threw her a new toothbrush. She caught it one handed and went to sit on the bed.

It was a double.

_Oh dear. This is going to be interesting._

She pulled her aching legs up and lay face down into the pillow. She felt the soft weight of Kurtis sink into the bed beside her, and shivers chased each other up and down Lara's spine as he ran a hand gently over the small of her back.

"You're gonna be so angry with me…" Kurtis sighed, the course of his hand slowing. She glanced up at him and their eyes locked. "Go look." He pointed to the mirror visible through the bathroom door.

Lara lifted herself slowly up off the bed, still looking at him, confusion and suspicion written across her face. When she got to the mirror, she turned and looked at her back.

* * *

Kurtis hears the gasp from where he sits, and runs a hand through his hair, to rest his face in his hands.

_

* * *

_

_Even as Lara looks at it, it's still forming. From the center of her lower back, a black mark swirls across a small portion of her skin, like ink seeping its way through paper and along the cracks. It blossoms outwards to both sides, embracing the back of her hips._

_

* * *

_

She returned to the bedroom a short while later to find Kurtis still sitting in the same position he was in when she left him. She sat beside him in stunned silence. Remembering the short, sharp pain when Kurtis laid the knife against her back in her home, she turned to him, a question trying and failing to form itself on her full lips. He lifted his palm face up to show her the line of rapidly healing crimson where he had sliced into his hand, and pressed it to the small cut on her back.

She finally found the word she was looking for, not the most eloquent she had ever spoken in her life, but definitely the most to the point. There was no tone of hurt or anger in her voice, only one of incomprehension.

"Why?"

"I can't tell you. Not while Karel's still alive. The only reason he paid barely any attention to you was 'cause you don't know."

Despite herself, she asked. "Don't know what?"

"I told you, the fact you don't know is the only reason you're still alive." Brushing a strand of hair away from her face, he added gently, "And I want to keep you that way."

Lara felt the irritation at her own bewilderment ease a little, and as she looked at him, she knew that was all the answer she was going to get for now.

He grasped her chin lightly and tilted her face up to him. She had never known him to be so gentle; perhaps it was a side effect of how exhausted they both were. "You're gonna have to trust me."

She nodded, and he let his hand drop slowly, still looking her straight in the eyes. With a painful and almost audible crack, he broke their connection and stood to walk around to the other side of the bed. Lara pulled herself under he sheets and lay on her side, facing away from him, feeling more confused than ever. Kurtis slid the sheets over him too, lying back with a hand behind his head. Glancing at her back, he closed his eyes with obvious pain, putting a hand to his forehead, his brows furrowed. Flicking off the light, he spoke to the silence;

"Night, Lara.'

The silence spoke back to him with more words than Lara could ever articulate.

And she hated herself for that.

* * *

**A/N**: Short and bittersweet :) please R&R as it mean so, so, so much to me that people read and enjoy this story. 


	4. Bonnie & Clyde

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* * *

**

Proof I'll Return

Chapter four: Bonnie & Clyde

* * *

When she woke, it was still darkness. Looking around to see what had stirred her, she felt the bedclothes shudder violently. As her eyes adjusted, she saw Kurtis convulse once. He looked like he was having some kind of epileptic fit. His strong shoulders jerked sporadically, and his hands were by his sides, fisted into the bed sheets. She sat up, and put her hands against his chest, holding him down. His breathing was irregular and accelerated, as if he had just run a marathon. She noticed he was whispering words, and suddenly realized that he was still asleep.

Looking down at the warrior beneath her and seeing all the scars that traced him outlined in the moonlight, it suddenly struck her how much he has seen, and done, and how haunted he must be by it all. As she looked down at him, he jolted once more, in extreme torture that wasn't even there.

She wanted to take the pain away, make it stop, but she couldn't. She knew how it felt to be trapped within the nightmare of your own head, constantly hunted by memories that could no longer hurt you, yet still found a way to.

She started talking to him, trying to rouse him, or at least comfort him with her words. After a few seconds, he gasped and sat up suddenly, coming face to face with Lara, who was now sitting astride him. He paused, looking up at her, and then out of the blue, he pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. Startled, she slid her arms around to his back too, and felt his breathing calm. Resting her head against his neck she inhaled deeply and felt his heart beat slowly into step with her own.

They stayed like that for several long minutes, before falling asleep wrapped up in each other.

* * *

Early the next morning there was a knock on the door. Looking through the door with his farsight, Kurtis saw one of the hotel porters standing outside with a clipboard.

"Shhhhiiiit…." He jumped back from the door and grabbed one of Winston's bathrobes from the bag – a hideous, valuable silk paisley monstrosity – and wrapped it around himself. Grabbing a cigar from the drawer, he ran up to the door again in time for a more impatient sounding knock. He looked back at the bed to a panicking Lara and shot quietly, "Lie back and look expensive!" Her look of alarm quickly transmogrified into one of disbelief at how crude he could be in the most remote of situations.

Taking a deep breath, he flicked a hand at the door and it swung open of its own accord. His posture and expression became arrogant and irritated as he put the cigar in his mouth.

"Excuse me…" the porter began, and trailed off, looking at the door and how it had apparently opened with no intervention of the stuck-up looking man who swaggered towards the doorway.

"Could you make this quick? If you don't mind." As he waved the cigar condescendingly around, the tone of Kurtis's voice implied that _he _definitely_ did_ mind. He raised an eyebrow and lit the cigar from a flame that mysteriously appeared in his hand, despite there being nothing in there to make fire.

The porter was about to reply when he noticed this. It knocked him off his course for an instant, and he momentarily forgot what he wanted to say. "I uh… I…" He looked closely at the mans hand as it puffed at the cigar haughtily.

Kurtis inhaled deeply and exhaled very pointedly into the other mans face.

Coughing from within the small cloud of smoke that orbited his face, he went for it, "Yes… yes… sorry… I, er, I'm here to query as to when you… uh… Mr.…"

"Mr. De Ville." Kurtis prompted, using the first name that came into his head.

"Yes… Mr. De Ville… right… well I'm terribly sorry to bother you and your… wife…" He looked past Kurtis to Lara who was trying her best to lounge on the bed looking "expensive" although not quite sure how to without looking like a prostitute. She settled for attempting to look bored, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. He gave her a respectful nod, "Mrs. De Ville-"

"Cruella." Kurtis deadpanned, taking the opportunity to puff more smoke into the porters' breathing space. Lara barely managed to stifle her laughter by stuffing a pillow into her mouth.

Confusion slapped itself across the porters face, but he immediately felt stupid. This man was obviously very wealthy and very powerful, and very not used to being annoyed by inferior human beings.

He looked like he might be some kind of rock star. He could be one of those drummers from one of those new bands. You could never remember the drummers' faces.

As the porter inwardly tried convincing himself he was not going crazy, Kurtis cleared his throat exaggeratingly.

"Ah… yes well, I'm here as to inquire when you booked in, as I can't seem to find you on the books-"

Kurtis interrupted him with a harsh laugh and turned to face Lara. "Did you hear that? Don't even have my name on the books. A complete disgrace. I told you we should have just stayed the extra week at the Ritz, didn't I?"

She did not trust herself to answer, so she settled for a non-committal mumble from her pillow, before shoving it further into her mouth.

"Its just, I, er, I wasn't sure whether you had actually booked and pai-" the porter stammered.

Kurtis looked down at him incredulously, looking as pompous as he could manage in the silk nightgown. "No, we just broke in here and are completely pretending to have paid these outrageous prices to be given the third degree by a stuttering idiot." He gave him a withering look, every syllable dripping with sarcasm.

"I, I'm terribly sorry sir, I'll go fix the books straight away, I promise you this will nev-"

And on that, Kurtis simply swung the door over and it slammed in his face.

The porter let out a breath and wiped his forehead. "Whew…" he completed, feeling very befuddled. He decided he was going to take his break in one of the vacant rooms and have a little lie down.

* * *

Kurtis shut the door and fell back against it, creased over in silent laughter. He could barely support himself and he slid down to the floor where he fought for breath. He was then hit in the head by the pillow that had previously been crammed in Lara's mouth.

"_Cruella_? Cruella _De Ville_? You absolute PLONKER." She yelled at him, barely able to speak, she was laughing so much. "And you know we've broken into this hotel!"

"Yeah, and I told him so, didn't I?" he smiled mischievously. He had her there, he was right. He had told the porter the complete truth about that. "It's not my fault he took it up the wrong way…"

* * *

A few minutes later, and they were back to business. Packing what little things they had into the black sports bag, they got changed, Lara into a black pair of Kurtis' combats and a white top from her bag, and Kurtis in jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt.

They left via the balcony so as not to be seen in the hotel's busy hour. After Kurtis made sure that Lara had a telekinetically soft landing, he jumped the three stories to the ground after her, landing swiftly on all fours. As she watched him stand, she realized how different he looked in jeans; he looked a lot more civilian than in his usual style. The black cotton shirt clung to his arms and stomach, his muscles standing out alongside the line of bandage that he had replaced around his wound.

_Wow, he sure knows how to dress… _she thought, a little surprised. As he walked he pulled the sleeves back out of habit, and she saw a piece of the tattoo that lay black as coal against his forearm. That snapped her out of her reverie as it reminded her of her own. She ran a hand over her back self-consciously. She jumped as she felt warmth spread through her hand as she touched it. Pulling her hand away she saw a faint glowing plum colour begin to fade at her fingertips.

Reaching the hidden Aston Martin, she twisted the side mirror up and looked at her back. Kurtis saw what she was doing and slowed his hand to the car door. Her mouth opened in an "O" of astonishment.

"A butterfly." Kurtis smiled, leaning on the door.

The mark across Lara's back could be described as a butterfly, but that was not doing it justice. It was a stylized version of something beautiful that resembled the delicate insect, that and so much more. What had before been an indistinguishable path of curling ink now had form. The top wings spread out from her spine to outline her hips, stunning swirls and intricate detail that could not have been done by any living being. It looked somewhat softer than Kurtis's and far smaller- his was sharper looking and spanned almost the entire right side of his back. This one spiraled softly, the bottom wings just dipping below her waistband, its antennae sweeping and twining a short distance up her spine like a halo. It looked slightly like a gothic version of something angelic.

As she sat slowly into the car, Kurtis got in beside her and pulled back his shirt arm more. Pressing his tattoo to her own, and instead of his orange glow, or her violet one, a white radiance spread from where the two marks touched, engulfing all the black and shining so brightly that Lara could see every detail of Kurtis's radiating out through the dark cotton of his shirt.

He pulled away, watching the sparkling fade from his arm, and then his back. "Oh." He breathed, and the light caught in his blue eyes as she looked at him, still completely speechless.

* * *

In the long drive to the airport, they assessed the situation. They were being hunted by a maniac with supernatural powers, they had no idea why, and Kurtis was in no condition to face any battles right now. He was permanently ashen-faced, running too hard on too little blood, all his energy being sapped away by his body into healing the massive puncture in his side. They decided they needed help, and the only surviving relative Kurtis knew of was living in the south of France. His uncle on his mothers side, he was the one Kurtis came to when he ran away, before leaving for the Legion.

She was amazed at how easy it was to talk to him, how things she normally kept hidden from people flowed out of her mouth before she even thought about it. And she was surprised at how he spoke just as freely back to her about himself.

There was so much on Lara's mind as they wove their way through the busy airport, it only occurred to her as she walked straight past the travel counter that he was heading for the terminal gates without a ticket. Tapping him on the shoulder and pointing to the desk, all he did was throw a smile back at her and kept on his stride. Walking up to the metal detector, Kurtis placed down the bag full of guns, knives and other highly dangerous materials on the x-ray machine. Lara gaped at his nerve.

The man staring at the x-ray screen as if in a trance yawned widely.

As Kurtis stepped through the metal detector, it beeped. The woman on the detector asked him to step aside while she searched him, with a barely concealed smile on her face as she ran her hands along his powerful arms… down his back…

Lara scowled as she took to his legs with more enthusiasm for her job than was called for. Looking up at Kurtis' face, she saw him concentrating intently on the x-ray screen. As she saw the corner of the bag enter the picture, static filled the display. The man at the monitor hit it once.

"Hey Abby! This stupid piece of junk is gone on the blink again!"

"Just a sec… I'm busy here!" She replied, from somewhere around Kurtis's belt. He watched the bag leave the x-ray and the screen cleared again. The woman looked over and sighed. "There's nothing wrong with it!" and with that, looked back at Kurtis. "Hmmm… I can't find anything on the surface… I might have to strip search you."

Kurtis turned to face her, one eyebrow raised. Lara stepped forward, an angry reply on the tip of her tongue, but he beat her to it with an excuse. Lifting up his shirt, he showed her the bandage and the small circle of crimson seeping through it.

"I was over here for an operation- got skewered on a pole." She looked up with shock written across her face, "Biking accident. Anyway, they got most of the metal out, but there's still some they couldn't reach."

"Oh you poor thing!" She put a hand out to touch his torso but he was quickly pushed out of the way by Lara, who stepped through the detector with a beep that was completely ignored. She made sure she hit off his wound as she pushed him, causing him to inhale sharply and throw her a look.

The woman picked his bag up off the detector and handed to him. As he took it from her, he winked. Watching him walk off she sat back down on her chair with a dazed look on her face. Turning to the man on the x-ray she said, "Still think I should have strip searched him. Just to be on the safe side." The man rolled his eyes and looked back to the screen with a smile.

* * *

Up in the surveillance room of the airport the security men watched the cameras as one by one they all became fuzzy for a moment before clearing again, nothing in particular seeming to set them off. One of the men picked up a phone.

"Sir." A pause.

"Yes sir, there's definitely some activity going on here. I can't be certain though, he's being careful, we can't tell which exact gate he is going through, three of them are covered by one camera. They're showing up static." Another pause.

"Oh yes, definitely no mistake sir."

Down the phone line, sitting in the library back at croft manor, Karel smiled. Hanging up, he broadcast one thought across the wide mental plane separating him from Kurtis.

_  
You can run, but you cannot hide, mortal. I will break you, and then I will break her.  
_

Many miles away, Kurtis stopped as a shiver ran down his spine and a menacing voice spoke in his head.

_  
I know what you did.  
_

"What is it?" Lara looked back at him with concern in her face, her earlier annoyance gone.

Looking down at her, her image flickered, and he saw her beautiful face bruised and slashed, saw her eyes flicker shut for the last time. She whispered his name once, sadness, pain and love all embracing the two syllables of himself, and felt her spirit leave her.

Her dying image faded, but the sound of his name grew louder, and he swayed back into consciousness, seeing the living, breathing Lara reappear in front of his eyes, the real world swimming back into focus. She called him, asking what was wrong.

_And then I will break her.  
_

Kurtis' blood boiled with rage and as Lara looked at him, his eyes clouded over.

Back in the Library, Karel was slammed forcefully against the bookshelves. Sitting up painfully he laughed, his short sharp laughter breaking up into coughs that racked his body. He spat crimson and stood, brushing dust from his clothes, and smiled, a trickle of blood colouring his pale lips.

* * *

A surge of power rushed out from Kurtis, like the epicenter of an earthquake, or a nuclear bomb. Lara was apparently the only one who could see the wave of orange that burst forth from him, but definitely not the only one who felt it. The energy swept out from him, lights and power cutting out in its wake.

* * *

In the airport security room, the monitors exploded.

* * *

Swaying dangerously on his feet he came to- grabbing Lara in the darkness he ducked under the passport counter and onto the plane. Heading down to the back, knowing that there were always spare 'last minute' seats there that were left free, they found two and sat in. Unaware of the blackout in the airport and the rest of the town that was within a five-mile radius; the plane drew out onto the runway, and entered the airspace.

* * *

When they were in the air, she turned to Kurtis. He was dangerously pale, and his breathing was shallow. She put an arm around his shoulders.

"What the hell was that?"

"Improvisation." He smirked up at her, the strength still in there, if momentarily muted.

A few minutes later, he was deep in sleep, a frown upon his face as he slept. Lara soon followed him into the blissful release of unconsciousness, her head resting on his shoulder.

* * *

**A/N: **Once again if you made it this far, thank you so much. Please R&R because it will make my day:D


	5. Hollow

Ok, I have no idea where this chapter came from. ;D it just appeared on my laptop magically. And anyone who can fix the French at the start of the chapter, please post the changes. I do German, not French, and babelfish wouldn't know grammar if it danced naked in front of it.

As usual, the more complete version is available at the Sanitarium, if you want the link, just drop me a line. :D There's some of the original naughty stuff left in this chapter, but slightly watered down, because I felt some of it was character relationship development, and the chapter feels empty without it. Please R&R, and constructive criticism is always appreciated, but please don't flame!

* * *

**Proof I'll Return  
Chapter 5: Just Peachy**

* * *

Touching down in southern France, Lara looked out of the window, remembering the promise she had made to herself never to set foot in the damned country again. Too many memories. And yet, here she was.

Kurtis's mind was also in its own inner turmoil. He had lost control back in the airport. He swore he would never let that happen. Not after what had happened last time…

Sometimes he felt like nothing but a dam to all this power that flowed into the world, as if he had no control, and this time he'd let Karel find a fracture in the works, and he had cracked.

They passed the x-ray machine almost the same way they had back in England, and upon approaching the passport counter, Kurtis picked up two leaflets advertising perfume from Duty Free. He whispered back to Lara; "Whatever you do, don't make eye contact with the passport guy. You'll break it. Look straight at the ground and follow as close behind me as you can, alright?"

As the counter came closer and closer, Lara looked instinctively to the floor, all the while thinking to herself, _this isn't going to work… this is crazy… its not going to work… _

Yes it is. Trust me, spoke a deep voice in her head. Kurtis walked straight up to the counter and flicked the two leaflets briefly at the man there. His face took on a dreamy quality, like one has when they go into a stare or a daydream. By the time he snapped out of it, both Kurtis and Lara were already past the border and a harassed-looking man with two children was waving his own ID in his face.

* * *

They were driving the rented car for little over an hour when they reached the house. Kurtis pulled up the tiled drive of a typical south-of-France villa, a symmetrical whitewashed building of quite a large size, it was surrounded by gardens and orchards that stretched as far as the eye could see. Getting out of the car he stretched in the evening sun, and the door opened, a young girl of about fifteen stepping out into the porch.

An enormous smile lit Kurtis's face when he saw her, and she stopped dead in her tracks, jaw dropping. There was a loud squeal and she ran straight for him, almost knocking him over and clumsily crushing his wound as she hugged him. Lifting her up away from the injury he spun her around and let her go, stepping back to look at her. In flawless French, he spoke to her.

"Ally- Vous êtes si grand!" Looking apologetic, he added, "whoa, J'ai juré que je ne dirais jamais qu'à n'importe qui, il est si vieux." Kurtis laughed his pleasant, deep laugh and Lara did a double take, but the girl simply grinned back at him.

She spoke perfect English back to him with a soft lilt to her voice. "Kurtis, it 'as been nearly nine years! You can't 'ave expected me to stay six forevair!"

"Où est Papa?" He asked, taking a hold of her hand.

"Intérieur." She began to lead him into the house when she caught sight of Lara. She paused and a smirk filled her face, one worryingly reminiscent of Kurtis' as she looked back at him. "Kurtis, tu as une petite Amie!"

"Je parle un Français aussi!" Lara smiled back at her. The girl had the grace to blush.

* * *

Walking up the stone steps to the study behind Ally, she thought to Kurtis; 

_I didn't know you spoke French so well. _

I learned it in the Legion.

You were in the Legion? You could have told me.

You never asked. He shrugged.

_How was I to know? I can't just jump inside of you like you can with me. Or torture you into it without touching you. _She glared at him, referring to the incident at the gym.

_That wasn't torture, and you know it._ He shot back, a dark, sexy glint in his eye.

_Oh yeah, like being fucked telekinetically isn't torture-_

He gave her a meaningful look and put a finger to his lips. A different voice spoke in her mind.

_I am telepathic too, you know._ Ally looked round at her, grinning.

This time it was Lara who blushed.

* * *

Walking into the spacious study, Lara was surprised to find it was of a size to rival her own. She watched the girl walk over to the window where an older man sat, leafing through a book. He had a small circular tattoo engraved into his palm that twined around his wrist. As he heard them approach, he turned and looked up. Lara was startled to see how blue his eyes were, like exact replicas of Kurtis's.

The familiar eyes on the strange man flew wide, and their younger version beamed down at him. Embracing him, the man pulled back, looking at him much the same way Kurtis had done with Ally earlier.

"Kurtis! I cannot believe it! Alive and well!" His voice was deep and had a slight American tone on the French accent.

The clear, honest delight on his face was still there when he turned to Lara and completely out of the blue, he hugged her too. Her feet left the floor as he did so.

"And who is this beautiful lady?" He asked, putting her down. All the air was squeezed out of Lara, and so Kurtis answered.

"Lara, this is my uncle DeCombel. Lara is… helping me with something. Somethin' I could really do with your expertise on." Lara shook his hand politely, and he turned back to Kurtis.

"What is it?" He looked to him, face filled with concern.

"I think one of them is trying to find the Voynich manuscript."

_Voynich._ It had a familiar sound to it… where had she heard that before?

If she had thought that his face looked worried before, she couldn't describe the horror that crossed his face at that instant.

"One of _them_?" Lara presumed this meant Karel. "But 'ow is It even here? They were all imprisoned millennia ago!"

"Eckhardt, the alchemist. He must have deciphered a piece of the script. He… he broke through into the river…" Kurtis paused here, and Lara knew there was something he was leaving out, but he continued, "…and one of them tricked him. It used him to dig up one in its original form, a purebred- The Dark Angel they called it- and bring it to life. Lara stopped that, but was only able to slow it down." DeCombel looked to her with astonishment.

_Voynich…_ she suddenly remembered where she had heard that word. "This Voynich manuscript, is that that bound book written in indecipherable letters? It's full of images of plants and animals that don't actually exist?"

"Plants and animals that don't exist _here_ my dear. Why- do you know of it?"

She skimmed over that obscure statement. "Because my father used to own it. It was part of his private collection up until he died. Then it was given to someone else under his will. I never knew who."

Kurtis suddenly looked at her with an unreadable expression. She was the only one who noticed the flicker of grief that crossed his face.

DeCombel continued, "Croft. Your surname is Croft, isn't it?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Because your father gave mine the manuscript." Kurtis cut across him, still gazing at her as if she was the only person in the room.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because_ I_ didn't know who gave it to him. All I know is he got it from a friend."

Stunned silence descended on Lara, as she tried to process this new information regarding her father. Information he had kept hidden from her. But why? She had been fascinated by the document when she was younger, a complete mystery that nobody could solve. It was one of the things that had originally caused her love of ancient secrets to grow.

Darkness was descending outside, and rain began to fall, softly kissing the baked earth and being swallowed up almost instantly.

"Kurtis, I am afraid we will 'ave to continue this discussion later when we 'ave all rested and I've done more reseairch. There's a lot of things I 'ave to double check before I go waving any conspiracies around. The training quarters just around the east hill 'as a resting room that you can both stay in tonight. We'll try and figure this all out in the morning." He rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"I can't just stay here while he knows." Kurtis ran his hands through his hair with a sigh. "Can Lara stay until I fi-"

"Excuse me?" she interjected.

"Lara, you can't go back home right now, and this is too danger-"

"Don't you_ dare_ talk to me about what is, and what isn't too dangerous for me."

"You don't understand," he began, aggravation and fatigue making his voice rise impatiently, "You're the tomb raider, I'm the demon hunter. This is on a completely separate league to yours."

She let out a scornful laugh, "This, coming from the man who was busy being skewered like a kebab by an oversized flea, while I fought off Eckhardt and Karel."

He glared back at her, the air between them crackling, before she stalked out of the room. Kurtis strode angrily after her.

DeCombel sat down to his desk and tried to think where to begin.

He sighed. _This is going to be a very long night._

* * *

_This is going to be a very long night,_ thought Kurtis as he took the steps two at a time, trying to catch up with Lara. He ran after her as she marched over to the car, enraged. She didn't understand…

"Turn the fuck around Kurtis." She yelled over her shoulder at him.

"No- the last time I turned my back on a bitch, she impaled me." He shot back through gritted teeth. Lara stopped, clenching her fists and restrained herself from hitting him. Getting into the car and slamming the door, she started it with no idea of where she was going. Driving away from the villa, Kurtis sprinted after her with unnatural speed. As she looked in the mirror, she saw the house disappear behind the corner.

Kurtis stopped in the middle of the road and raised two hands to the departing vehicle.

Lara felt the car lurch forward and come to a complete halt, tilting forward. Getting out of it, she saw that it had been completely lifted off its back wheels, leaving them spinning in vain at the air. With a scream of frustration, she kicked the hovering end of the car.

She could not_ believe_ that bastard.

Kurtis came up to her at a jog and she saw that the villa was completely out of sight and sound behind the hill, and the training quarters lay empty in front of her. He walked right into her, forcing her back against the car.

Staring daggers at him, she contemplated the fact that if she killed him right now and here, no one would see her.

Intercepting this image as he pressed her into the vehicle, he responded in her head;

_Only if I can choose my own method of execution. _

Their gazes locked intensely for a second, before he moved in and kissed her violently. Hating herself for every bit of pleasure she derived from it, she responded automatically to him, opening her mouth, pushing back against him. As he bit her lower lip she replied;

_  
You just have. _

Putting his mouth a tantalizing distance from her ear, he spoke aloud; his voice husky and almost menacing, shivers running up and down her. "Then I'll die a lucky man."

She turned her head to face him and he was so close, his stubble brushed her lips. All the raw, pent up energy she had directed into trying to hate him as an attempt to ease the torment went out the window at their first sexual contact in days, and shone straight back at her through his beautiful, expressive eyes.

She spun quickly, slamming him against the car instead, and leaned into him, kissing his strong jaw, down his neck, and felt his Adams applemove against her lips as he groaned. There was no softness to Kurtis's body, there was nothing but hard conditioned muscle separating her from him, and Lara could feel the blood thunder through his body as she held him pressed into the car with her own.

Unable to bear it any longer, he sought out her mouth with his own, and they kissed hungrily, arching harder into each other and it still wasn't enough. They pushed so hard against each other that there would be bruises everywhere that their bodies touched, but that made it all the more delicious.

"God, Lara," he gasped, and his voice went uneven. Lara felt like she had back in the gym, like her mind was cracking up into blissfully incoherent pieces, disjointed thoughts forming in her head and quickly being shoved away as she felt his body shift against her own once again.

He picked her up effortlessly, and especially to Lara, it felt actually physically painful that they still weren't close enough. She made a small desperate sound, her eyes screwing shut because god, it felt so good it was torture.

Her head fell back involuntarily as his hands skimmed her body with beautiful precision, and all she could see was stars filling the night sky, spinning and blurring because she could not concentrate on them. Unable to even summon enough breath to cry out at the top of her lungs, Lara felt her eyes water as a tear slid hot and salty down one side of her face, the stars nothing more than faint scars of light on her retinas. He caught the teardrop with his tongue, and the lick burned like a lingering tease.

"What's wrong?" His voice was rough and low in his throat, full of concern.

"Don't you get it?" she spoke between the harsh intakes of breath, "I'd rather die beside you tonight then live a thousand years without you… without this…"

Kurtis simply kissed her, all the feeling rushing through him and into her like a tidal wave, flooding every corner of her mind, sweeping all doubt and hurt away with exquisite clarity.

He watched as the water spilled freely from both eyes now, and as he looked at her, everything about her in that moment was truth to an almost primal degree. Her pain, her love, her complete acceptance that life without him, was not life at all. And above all else, he knew that to just leave her, even if it meant she would stave death off longer, would only be prolonging the slow decay of solitude. It would eat away at them both until they were nothing but empty, hollow shells.

There was a connection of some kind between them at that moment, and though Kurtis had used no telekinesis, the emotions and sensations were unrivalled by anything supernatural. She felt, rather than heard his train of thoughts.

_The only time I don't feel hollow is with you. You fit perfectly into me._

Kurtis knew she meant more to this than in the physical sense, it was everything; physical, mental, bordering on spiritual, the way they fit so perfectly within one another.

She twined a hand softly into his dark hair, and he turned his face into her wrist and bit gently. Lara's breathing became jagged, and she pulled his head back to kiss him, both of them dizzy from lack of breath but completely unwilling to take in air, suffocation being a less painful option when compared to breaking away from one another.

There was a loud cracking noise as the headlights of the car shattered, soon followed by the back lights, and eventually every window gave way, Kurtis's emotions emitting a high powered frequency of their own, uncontrollable bursts of energy unleashing themselves nearby.

Carrying her the short distance from the car into the training quarters, and when they reached the closeness they had been craving for days, and Lara felt hollow no more, Kurtis yelled and grabbed the metal stair rail with one hand.

By the time he let go, the reinforced titanium rail had five significant dents in it.


	6. Framed

**A/N: **So, here's the next chapter and I'm sorry for the cliff-hanger! There's a huge chunk missing from this for obvious reasons, so if you want to read that and the next chapter before it's posted here, send me a message and I'll link you to the Sani. A few of you already have, and I hope you all got over ot it ok!

R&R people!

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* * *

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**Proof I'll Return**  
Chapter 6: Framed

* * *

Kurtis woke slowly and reluctantly, stretching his body and reaching out for Lara across the warm bed.

The warm, empty bed.

"Oh, damn," he spoke softly and disappointedly, to no one in particular.

That was when he heard her scream, and a loud smash.

Suddenly very wide awake, he flipped up from the bed, pulling his stomach muscles savagely. Wrapping the white bed sheet around him, he called the Chirugai to him and caught it as he ran out the door.

Reaching the downstairs gym, where the scream had come from, he saw Lara standing in shock, looking at a shattered glass of water at her feet.

Breathing out relieved, he walked forward, sheet clasped around him and the glaive still sparkling with orange fire. "Jeez, you nearly gave me a heart-attack. It's just a glass of water Lara, don't worry about it, I'll clean it up-"

"No," she said, interrupting him, "I- I didn't touch it. I broke it, but I didn't touch it."

Kurtis raised an eyebrow, and waited for her to elaborate.

"I was working on the kickboxing bag, and I turned around to get my water, and… and it slid straight across that table to me, and fell to the floor."

"Oh great… so now you know." He ran a tired hand across his face and through his hair, blue eyes closing against his palm for a moment.

"No, it can't- I'm just jumping to conclusions."

"Lara, you and I know you're not. It started last night."

"How did it?"

He dropped his hand. "When the car windows smashed… it wasn't just me that was making them break. I usually have more control over my powers then that. It'd take more'n just me to make them explode like that."

"But I can't be… I'm not Lux Veritatis-"

"Ally isn't, and she's telepathic. My uncle's barely half, and his only powers are healing."

"But how… when you cut yourself and our blood mixed…?" Kurtis nodded, and she continued, "But I still don't get why you did it?"

Kurtis looked at her warningly, brow furrowed.

"…and you still can't tell me. I know, I know… its for my own good…" she laughed disdainfully. "So I'm telekinetic now?"

His only answer was to step forward, his front pressed to her back, and wrapping one arm around her to rest his palm against her stomach, the other arm lifted both her hands into the air.

"Lean back at the shoulders, and bend your knees some…" She leant back into his chest, feeling his skin still bed-warm against her own, and relaxed her stance a little. "Yeah, that's it. Now feel for the extra something around here-" He stroked a hand across her stomach lightly, and she felt something drawn out of her momentarily, like a dark animal emerging momentarily from murky water, but disappearing once again. It felt slightly like an extra phantom limb, like as if she had suddenly found an extra arm that had not been there before.

"Remember, hold your arms out- you need them to focus it." And he skimmed both hands down her arms as he spoke, raising goose bumps along them as he did. Upon reaching the back of her hand, he twined his fingers into hers- a strangely intimate gesture- and she felt power flood into her, just like in the gym when she had fallen and he had touched her shoulder.

Along with Kurtis' heat and solidarity pressed along her back, she felt something else, a sensation coming from her tattoo, like something coming together and forming, concentrating. It was as if this new energy had always been there in the background, like lazy sunlight suddenly focused under a magnifying glass, to set fire to a piece of paper.

"Look at that chair," he whispered in her ear, "and feel for it- not with your hands, with this. It flows over it like water, outlines it. Can you feel the space it makes in the stream? Everything solid does that. Feel for it."

She closed her eyes, and it was almost like she hadn't. She wasn't seeing the room, she was feeling it, but there was a mental picture in her head, the whole room outlined in a red haze.

She could see the 'stream' that Kurtis was talking about, and felt her mind slip along it as easily as a boat in water. She struggled against it as if almost in a tide, the sensation at once, a fascinating and frightening one.

Kurtis looked up at the clock a long while later. "Tempus fugit…" he said quietly to himself as he noted how fast the time had flown. Lara could now move light objects around the room. She had knocked the chair over completely unaided, and the had only really had one mishap.

She was focusing intently on a lamp, trying to switch it on. Kurtis brushed his hand against her shoulder softly to correct her on something. Like a static shock jumping from one person to the other, she accidentally channeled some power out of Kurtis and there was a loud bang. Ducking instinctively, they both stood again into a cloud of evil black smoke.

The lamp had exploded. It was nothing more than a large black circle of ash on the table.

Kurtis looked to her wide-eyed. She still had her hands clamped to the top of her head, her face like that of a deer caught in headlights.

"Lara?"

"Hmm?" Was the only decipherable thing her mouth could produce.

"Promise me somethin'."

She nodded.

"Never, _ever_, try and focus on anything that's alive, or wants to stay that way, will ya?" a wide grin stretched across his face as she punched him in the arm.

* * *

When she had finally got the hang of moving and picking up things mentally, he beamed at her, genuine delight lighting up his normally solemn face as he watched her improve rapidly.

She looked at him, smiling at how quickly he had run to her at her yell, wrapped up in the bed sheet like her all Christmases had come at once and he was the present, wrapped in a sort of waist-height toga like some kind of Roman god. Adonis, she considered, drinking in the sight of his hard, conditioned body. An evil idea snuck into her mind, and she slipped back into the mental plane… moving forwards, feeling out for it… and she found it…

Kurtis turned back to Lara, but too late. The sheet slid swiftly from his otherwise bare body and flowed straight into Lara's waiting embrace. Lara opened her eyes and she bit her lip as a grin like a Cheshire cat slapped itself across her face. Her eyes devoured his body, mentally cataloguing every detail, the soft morning-stubble adorning his chiseled face and neck, the hard definition of his torso, the V of muscle just below his stomach and between his hips...

While most men would have blushed at her silent perusal of their form, Kurtis just stood there in his normal casual stance, exuding a sexy masculine confidence, wearing nothing but a slight sardonic smirk flavoring his lips.

"You done yet?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, and turning to stride out of the room. Lara couldn't help her head tilting slightly as she watched him walk away.

_  
I have eyes in the back of my head you know._ He paused in the doorway, throwing her a smile over his shoulder before stepping through.

He headed towards the stairs and pulled on the jeans that still hung discarded there from last night. She watched the muscles in his back shift, the tattoo black as night against his golden skin.

Lara retreated through a side door facing the gym into the kitchen, biting her fist to relieve the tension. Splashing water over her face, she felt it cool against her hot skin. Looking up into the mirror she noticed how flushed she looked._ I hate that he does this to me._

She had always felt the need to be in charge of her life, and then Kurtis had waltzed in and turned everything upside down. She felt so out of control around him, like anything could happen. Coming from a background where everything was routine and normal, she had busied herself searching for adventure, exploration, anything to distract her from herself. He brought all of this straight to her- she didn't need to go looking for it. It found her.

Kurtis was danger, and maybe that's why he intoxicated her so much.

Back in the gym, he walked over to the punch-bag and flicked a hand at the radio. He took up stance at the punch bag as 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails began to pump its harsh beat through his body.

He took up the rhythm easily, starting slowly, hitting the bag with gradually increasing force, muscles contracting on impact.

Punch. Kick.  
Punch. Kick.

**_You let me violate you._**

Lara leaned in the doorway, watching him unseen as his moves became more complex.

**_You let me desecrate you. _**

You let me penetrate you.

Two punches that were so fast, his hands looked a blur. A roundhouse kick.

**_You let me complicate you. _**

He flipped forward to knock the bag on face level, and it swung back with the powerful thump as he landed, still standing. She realized his eyes were almost closed as he hit out the coordinated blows, lost in the music and the rhythm. He didn't even know she was still there.

Stepping quietly out of the doorway she sat on a chair and folded her arms, watching him.

_Lets see how you like it then.  
_

Closing her eyes she felt out for the room, and the red behind her eyelids took shape, things began to appear- the radio on the table, the punch bag- and Kurtis. Reaching out with her… psyche- or whatever it was called, she opened her eyes and with a thrill she realized she could still feel with that extra sense. Concentrating hard on Kurtis, her ethereal hands made contact with his chest, and slid down his athletic form. Reaching the rough material of his jeans, she pressed through them.

He faltered mid-strike and let out a loud breath of surprise at the invisible stimulation. Shutting his eyes again, he tried to ignore it and rested his forehead against the cool of the punch bag. Straightening up, he resumed hitting the bag with even more violence and frustration than before.

Lara was getting stronger in her power. What was at first a slight whisper of a touch, was now full on sensation that was driving him insane. Though she could feel him responding unwillingly, it was just as maddening to her as it was to him. She was touching him, but not physically like the rest of her body was pleading with her to. And with determination that would have made even Kurtis impressed, she remained seated as she watched it begin to affect him.

A wicked smile grew on her face as what had once been synchronized fighting techniques were beginning to waver as his concentration slipped and all that filled his mind was her.

His hips bucked twice successively and involuntarily, against nothing. His body was subconsciously responding to a woman that wasn't even there. He kicked out viciously at the bag, resorting to trying to hurt himself as a distraction.

_Frustrating to the point of pain, isn't it? _She spoke into his open mind, determined to make him crack first this time.

He tried to ignore it, ignore her, but as Lara grew stronger in her abilities, it became too intense for even a warrior who had survived torture, and he turned from the bag, striding towards her with intent etched into his face…

* * *

Her body shaking as though she had just survived an earthquake, she lay back, unable to even hold her head up anymore, a sheen of perspiration cooling on her skin. Kurtis collapsed with her, his heart beating wildly against her chest as his breathing slowed.

She listened to the sound and felt her own slow into the same soothing rhythm.

* * *

Much later, dressed and fed, they made their way back to the house around the hill, Kurtis sneaking a glance at Lara as his boots crunched over the remnants of the car window and headlights on the road. She very resolutely tried to keep a straight face. Tried, anyway.

Walking into the study they found a very tired DeCombel sitting at his desk, exhausted featured highlighted by the glare of the laptop he was searching through. He smiled honestly and genuinely when he saw them, and caught a familial resemblance between Kurtis and him for an odd moment.

"Have you been up all night?" Kurtis asked incredulously.

"Yes, and I think I know what is going on." He replied, his normally jovial face serious.

Lara stood in front of the fire, listening and savoring its warmth with her hands. The conversation in the background fazed out for a second as she caught sight of a picture of Kurtis, around the age of sixteen, obviously the first time he had got his hands on a Glaive. His eyes reflected the cheerful orange fire of the Chirugai as he held it reverently, looking up into the camera with a dazzling smile of pure delight. Her heart lifted as she looked at his youthful image, full of innocence compared to the hardened man who stood confidently next to her.

There was one frame that had fallen over, lying face down. She picked it up.

Settling it back down, a familiar face stared out at her, frozen forever between glass and wood.

It was Karel.

And DeCombel had his arm around him.


	7. In Too Deep

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews everyone, and here's a very plotty chapter to get stuck into. As a reference if you wish, you can go to http/www.voynich.nu to look at the actual Voynich manuscript. And get this: it was once officially owned by an alchemist...

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**Proof I'll Return **

Chapter seven: In too deep

* * *

Only it wasn't Karel. This man had dark, almost black hair, and dark brown eyes. The small smile upon his face had no more depth than the obvious happiness it portrayed. This mans face was far more chiseled, a smaller nose, bigger eyes. He was infinitely more handsome, but still had an air of authority in the way he stood tall next to the considerably shorter DeCombel. Karel looked pale, drawn and misshapen when compared to the rugged, mysterious appearance this man had.

He wore black and dark blue, but she caught a glimpse of a tattoo peeking out above the neckline of his clothes.

_Oh my god, _thought Lara, _he's Lux Veritatis. _

Looking up at Kurtis, she saw that man's manner in him, tall, authoritative and dark. The frame slipped from her hands and smashed on the hard marble of the hearth.

Kurtis turned sharply, eyes going from the broken frame to Lara and back again. Holding her gaze suspiciously he walked to her, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body stronger than she could feel the fire. She felt a bizarrely detached desire to move the extra inch nearer, wrap his arms around her, shut her eyes against the soft material of his shirt, forget…

He bent slowly to pick up the frame, his shoulder brushing softly against her as he straightened up again, the photo in one hand. She saw a glimmer of something cross his blue eyes, but it was gone as he looked up at her with an unreadable expression.

DeCombel spoke into the awkward silence as Lara and Kurtis locked gazes. "I feel we 'ave some explaining to do to our dear Lara 'ere…"

Kurtis's eyes flicked to the carpet, his mouth set in a firm line.

"The man in that picture is not this Karel person you are thinking of." Noting the surprised look she gave him as he spoke Karel's name he added, obvious distaste in his words, "Yes, I know of Karel. That alchemist Eckhardt and 'im are the reason Kurtis was orphaned. Come sit down 'ere and I will tell you a story."

_

* * *

_

Konstantin surfaced from unconsciousness, his vision murky and his thoughts chaotic. The figures moving in front of his eyes began to focus, taking shape with terrible clarity. The bitter tang of blood filled his mouth as he tried to stand from his kneeling position on the floor. Metal bit into his wrists and shoulders as he was dragged right back down to the ground, a jarring pain erupting from his knees as they hit the stone floor. He looked past the shuffling silhouettes and saw a petite figure lying motionless within a circle of light close by.

"Marie…" he tried to yell, his voice coming out a hoarse whisper. The outline of a man blocked his view of her, and he felt his head being pulled back. A knife was placed against his throat, cold, unforgiving steel pinching into the vulnerable skin below his adams apple.

He called her name once again, louder and with even more passion and haste than before. Her head lolled weakly to one side and her eyes opened a crack. The whole room disappeared into a blur as they saw nothing else but each other, in a room so filled with hate and cruelty and death. She mouthed three unmistakable words that had been spoken so often, yet never with as much truth as they were now.

Konstantin surfaced from unconsciousness, his vision murky and his thoughts chaotic. The figures moving in front of his eyes began to focus, taking shape with terrible clarity. The bitter tang of blood filled his mouth as he tried to stand from his kneeling position on the floor. Metal bit into his wrists and shoulders as he was dragged right back down to the ground, a jarring pain erupting from his knees as they hit the stone floor. He looked past the shuffling silhouettes and saw a petite figure lying motionless within a circle of light close by. Konstantin surfaced from unconsciousness, his vision murky and his thoughts chaotic. The figures moving in front of his eyes began to focus, taking shape with terrible clarity. The bitter tang of blood filled his mouth as he tried to stand from his kneeling position on the floor. Metal bit into his wrists and shoulders as he was dragged right back down to the ground, a jarring pain erupting from his knees as they hit the stone floor. He looked past the shuffling silhouettes and saw a petite figure lying motionless within a circle of light close by. 

I love you.

_  
She was still smiling when the axe hit her neck. _

Konstantin closed his eyes before it struck, tears flowing down his face and along the blade against his neck, running into all the gashes in their path and stinging with salt.

Still holding the knife to him, Eckhardt spoke quietly in Latin. Konstantin's eyes shot open, a blazing white, the tattoo along his chest and neck burning so brightly, the places it met his shirt curled up in black flame. The metal shackles that held him went from silver, to red, to orange, and melted.

Power flowed from his body in waves, overcoming the lesser people who stood in a circle around him and Eckhardt. They retched and crumpled up.

His feet left the ground and yell of rage erupted from him, unearthly and ghostly, as he became outlined in the white glow. His tortured soul wanted vengeance; he would blast them all to the deepest pits of hell.

Konstantin was an impressive looking man by normal standards, but as he gathered all his power, he was nothing short of terrifying.

It was then Eckhardt swiftly dragged the knife across his neck and his body became slack as his spirit left him, a line of pale fire along his neck widening with a loud crack.

"The doorway is open." Eckhardt's harsh accent echoed around the room, stepping back as creatures vied for entry to the mortal realm. One of them broke through violently into the corpse.

The colour drained from his entire body, his hair fading from a rich black to a pasty white-blonde, his eyes from russet to the palest blue-grey. The creature flowed into his skin, the shape of Konstantin changing to accommodate it. It looked like it had been sculpted by an artist who had never seen a human, who had only ever heard a description. There was barely one thing left the same; it spoke in Konstantin's voice.

Angelic symbols flared pale upon the creature's skin, before disappearing as it became more human.

It stretched its new mortal limbs, finding them awkward compared to its usual free, ethereal shape, and moved awkwardly into a bow.

"I am Joachim, one of the Fallen. I am your grateful servant, master."

Eckhardt did not see the sneer it concealed while it spoke, face hidden in a bow.

* * *

Lara realized her mouth was open, and she leaned back from the desk.

"So- Kon- Konstantin was used as some sort of a gateway?"

"Well some people believe that there is this life and then the next, and that is the whole… 'ow do you say… shebang." He waved his hands in the air as he explained. "It is not that simple. There are a great many other worlds operating parallel to this one, for different purposes.

"But there is an afterlife, one which connects us all. When we die, our spirits are taken into the river and we are reborn into it. If we are lucky. Those 'oo have reached perfection are brought directly in.

"Ever hear people ask why does God always take the ones who deserve life? This life is simply a purgatory, a test. The good, the bad, the pain and the pleasure mould us, we come through the trials a stronger person. It is the reason the afterlife is what it is.

"The ones undeserving of it are simply reincarnated until zey are worthy. This river which I speak of flows through everything, it is the reason plants grow, the very life energy of the smallest atom."

Lara recalled the sensation of sliding along a stream when she used telekinesis.

"Without that energy, quite simply, the universe would stop. We do not quite understand what that energy is, some believe it is God, othairs seek a more scientific explanation.

"But some of those in the afterlife were not 'appy with a _share_ of heaven; they felt they deserved to have freedom of all realms, that zey were above the mortals who inhabited it alongside them. Many of these so called 'Angels' begun to rise themselves above the othairs, creating anarchy. From what they could gather of the river's ability to create and move through worlds, they documented, creating a detailed manuscript of the alchemic and supernatural requirements needed to travel between universes.

"We are unsure 'ow, but five managed to tear an enormous gateway into this world, taking their manuscript with them. The few who survived took up with ze alchemist Eckhardt, and taught him things mortals were not meant to know. It was a terrible time, those long dead begun mysteriously coming back to life, their souls ripped out of the afterlife into decayed bodies zat were no longer recognizable. Zombies are not an urban legend, my dear.

"It was around this time the Lux Veritatis formed. We fought back, after years of war we managed to send each of the five angels back to the river where it swept them into a barren, lifeless prison realm. This is the realm Eckhardt used the manuscript to break into."

"The Voynich Manuscript?" Lara asked incredulously.

"Yes, the angelic script is undecipherable to 'umans."

"But I still don't understand why they used Konstantin…" she spoke softly, as if Kurtis wouldn't hear.

"The Lux Veritatis are the select few who can feel the flow of the river and know 'ow to use it. 'Ow to manipulate it and control it. They are at all times a constant link to it, and it is ze link to every realm. Konstantin was used as a doorway. They forced him to accumulate all of his power, all of his connection to the river in one instant and killed him, cleaving a gap into it. Karel was the one 'oo broke through."

She looked towards the fireplace and saw Kurtis was leaning against it. She could just about make out his shadowy silhouette against the flames.

Lara was vaguely beginning to understand. The power Kurtis used was simply that of life, he poured the energy into something inanimate and it moved, he left his body and the river carried his mind ahead where his body could not, and so on. This new-found insight into his abilities fascinated her to a degree which she had never reached with another human being. Tombs and dead secrets were all very exiting, but Kurtis was a living mystery, a walking treasury of secrets that changed every day.

Thinking back to the matter at hand, she mulled over this new information. The death of Marie obviously blinded Konstantin to what he was doing, and he broke into the stream, intending on killing them all with it, inadvertently leaving himself wide open for anything waiting in it.

But that still left Karel.

"We are not quite sure what Karel is trying to do, only that he_ might _be trying to free more of his fellow Fallen. Telepathy runs in ze family." he added, grinning at her raised eyebow. "Personally, I would be of the opinion that you need to decipher this…"

He pressed a rather nondescript bundle of ancient looking pages into her hands.

"How did you get this?" She questioned in amazement.

"Kurtis was not the only thing that came to me when 'e was orphaned…" He answered, rather cryptically.

* * *

Settling down to the table back in the training house, Lara covered the table with various examples of script, lettering, all forms of ancient and modern code. She felt suddenly very at home doing what she did best, uncovering ancient secrets. Flicking a hand at the radio a few times, the switch turned of it own accord. Absentmindedly, she drummed her hands to the beat of Blink 182 as she shuffled through the papers.

_Don't waste your time on me you're already the voice in side my head,  
I miss you, I miss you, I miss you_

The earthy scent of coffee reached her and she watched a disembodied mug settle next to her arm as Kurtis sat opposite, a cup of his own enclosed in both hands.

"Showoff." she smiled. Inhaling richly, she tasted it. _Half milk, one sugar. How does he know these things? _

Blue eyes looked up at her from beneath dark hair. _A little birdie told me,_ was the relaxed reply.

She leaned back with her own in hand and watched him savor the dark liquid on his tongue. "Can I ask you something?"

He swallowed. "Hit me."

"When we were back at the manor, and you showed me something personal in your subconscious, I saw… your father, dead, surrounded by blood. But if Karel is using his body then…" she left the question hanging in the air.

He ran a hand over his face and into his hair, an idiosyncratic gesture of his. "My dreams, it was only in my dreams. I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind I'm wishing I could just see him, dead. Know that he's really gone. That must sound like a really sick wish." he raised an eyebrow, letting out a humourless laugh.

"No, I get it, you want some closure."

"Sometimes I just get sick of chasing the ghosts. I guess hunting demons hides the truth. It's them that're really hunting me."

She was taken aback at his brutal honesty, showing no signs of fear for the creatures that pursued him. It made her sad to think that this was not because of foolish arrogance; it was simply that he didn't really care whether they killed him, so long as he gave as good as he got first. He was looking into the cup as though it held all the secrets of the world and more, staring intensely into it absent-mindedly.

Lara got up from her seat and padded over to him softly. Looking up at her, he moved his arms around her waist as she sat in his lap. Resting her chin on his head, she slid her hands around his broad shoulders. "So what's the plan Batman?"

"Well we need to figure out this manuscript before we can go any further. Maybe then we'll know where or what he's up to."

"Easier said than done I'm afraid…" she rested her forehead against his. "I suppose it's back to work then?" her voice had a playful hint to it as she left the question hanging, painting images of other more productive activities they could be partaking in.

"And they say it's the guy who always thinks with his dick…" he laughed as she hit him on the side of the head, "leave mine alone for five seconds, will ya?"

Nodding because she knew he was right- time really was running out- she stood up reluctantly and Kurtis did the same, stretching his powerful limbs. She watched him turn to leave with a feeling of slight disappointment. Noting her expression he twisted around on one foot to face her again, amusement dancing across his blue eyes.

His strong hand caught hold of her chin, tilting her face up to him and he kissed her once on the cheek, so softly it felt barely more than a whisper. She closed her eyes against the touch of his skin, and he kissed each eyelid, hesitating for one exasperating moment in front of her lips. Caving in, he brushed them against hers for a slow kiss that gradually became deeper and more passionate, until they were grasping at each other's faces and snatching breath only when their lungs screamed desperately for air. She made a small sound against his mouth out of longing as they kissed harder, deeper, and just as her own loss of control began to scare her, he broke away.

Still holding her face in both hands, his eyes were fixed upon her delicate mouth, a look of confusion only making his features more defined and striking. She could feel his flushed skin burning so close as he breathed heavily, and felt something like surprise at how fast she had caused his blood to rush.

Stroking her jaw line lightly, he let his hand drop and turned to the doorway once more, pausing with one strong arm against the frame. Glancing back at her, he smiled his lopsided smile. Then he was gone.

* * *

Sitting back down to her papers, she could not concentrate no matter how hard she tried. Finally giving up, she slipped fluidly into farsee, telekinesis being far easier through it. The transition was becoming more straightforward the more she practiced. Moving through the red haze towards the radio, her gaze skimmed over the table for an instant, and catching sight of the Voynich, her heart froze heavily against her ribcage.

She could understand the writing. Every, single, letter.

The script was still in no understandable language, yet it was translating itself directly within her head. She focused on one page in which all the writing was curled around a circular dial filled with words and pictures, known unanimously by experts as the zodiac page for its strange layout.

The heading screamed at her to be read. As her eyes flitted across each alien word, its duplicate surfaced in her head. It was not in English, or any other language she knew for that matter, but it had an almost primal quality to it, as if this was the only true language, one that all living things knew.

She struggled to find an English equivalent to what the word was. She knew what it was… but how to explain it… the closest word she could think of made her lose her grip on her farsee and sit back in the chair, a hand to her mouth in shock.

_  
Apocalypse._


	8. To Forget Is To Heal

She ran with the manuscript in her hand, holding it against her chest to protect the ancient document as she whipped nimbly through doorways and corridors. Reaching the gym she paused in the doorway, panting and trying to catch her breath.

Kurtis was standing stock still on a balancing beam, one hand out to the side to keep himself steady, the other hand outstretched as an entire rack of weights hung telekinetically in the air._ They must weigh four hundred pounds or more…_ she thought, momentarily thrown from her thoughts. _And I find it hard to flick a simple switch… _she stepped forward, a loud creak coming from the floorboard she was standing on. He twisted to face her, still balancing on the beam with the poise of a puma, ready to strike.

When he saw it was her, his shoulders relaxed and he hopped from the beam, heavy boots raising dust upon impact with the ground. "Nightingale floor." he pointed to the traitorous floorboard, "What's up?" he looked her up and down as he walked towards her, wondering what had her so high-strung.

"I can read this." She held out the manuscript to him. He took it, eyebrows furrowed. Looking up, she found herself caught in his ice-blue stare.

"You can understand this? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I slipped into telekinesis and it was as clear as day. I can't read it outside of the river though."

She knew what he was going to do even before his eyes clouded over.

A few seconds later he blinked, his azure gaze clearing. "I can't read it." He shook his head. "Hold on, I have an idea." Standing close to her, the manuscript held between them, his spare hand went to her back and under her top, to touch the tattoo. Her eyes went wide with surprise as a light headed free-falling sensation took her. She gripped his belt at his hip, before losing all the awareness of her body as the entire room was painted in a scarlet fog.

She felt Kurtis' presence all around her, and looked down at the page. The sensation was almost indescribable, she felt whole, complete and powerful. Like the river was flowing right though her, embracing her adoringly, washing over her limbs.

Kurtis' voice didn't come from the same place it usually did when they were linked telepathically, instead it came from deep within her own thoughts, her own inner voice.

_  
Read to me._

She read the page. And the feelings left her, replaced by those of her body as she regained power over it again. The cold air on her face, the uneven wood beneath her feet, the warmth of Kurtis' hand at her back, the heat of his skin against her fingers as she gripped his waist.

She watched his eyes clear for a second time and he snapped away from her as he reconnected with his body. Blinking, he frowned, deep in thought.

"Were you just inside me?" she breathed incredulously, "you were just inside me, I swear you were… in here…" she pressed a trembling hand to her chest. He held on to her hand to calm her shaking.

"Sorry, I needed to see things through your eyes to be sure. You have clarity."

"Clarity?"

"Yeah, you can understand all forms of communication from inside the river… it's one of the rarest Lux powers..." trailing off, he clasped both hands behind his head as he contemplated. "The most common power is telepathy. Clarity and telekinesis are harder to come by. They're usually passed on through powerful bloodlines. I'm pretty sure you're the only one in about six thousand years to have it…"

"You have telekinesis and telepathy?"

"And some others. My mother was pyrokinetic and hydrokinetic, she taught me a little of both."

"Isn't that the ability to manipulate fire and water?"

"Yep. Ever wonder why the Chirugai glows orange? It runs along the currents. It gets its power from the reaction of the fire to the river. Using it is a lot more complicated than you might think."

She paused, mentally updating her profile of him once again, amazed at all the things she still didn't know. "We need to talk to DeCombel again." she said, deciding she would try understanding all of this later on, when her mind wasn't buzzing.

* * *

Up in DeCombel's study, they spread the sheets out evenly so they covered almost half the floor space. DeCombel leaned against his desk, arms folded, looking down on the hundreds of pages below him. Lara stepped carefully in the space between the sheets, moving from one to the next, reading and calling out her findings.

Upon hearing her cry of surprise, Kurtis got up from a group of paper he had been examining and walked deftly between the delicate sheets to crouch near her.

"What is it?"

"I get this," she pointed to a page with three dials, all of which had writing curving around them. At the centre of the first two was a complicated cosmological-looking drawing, but the centre of the last one depicted a woman's face. It was crudely drawn, yet nonetheless her muted beauty shone through. "The first two are maps of the world, back and front. Each word is like a latitude and longitude," she pointed to the first dial, to a word close to the top and centre. "This is England… and this is Paris… which puts us around here… they must have only known the shape of the earth, not its continents, and made a kind of cross reference. But I can't understand the coordinates for the third disk-"

"That's 'cause its not the earth." Kurtis touched the image of the woman at the centre of the third dial, and ran a finger lightly down the side of her face. "What's this say?" he pointed to writing alongside it.

Lara closed her eyes. "Eve walks." she stopped, struggling to find the English equivalent of the words, "She walks where she dares; no barrier holds her or her River; she is it and it is her. All comes from her and to her it returns, like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean. She is the running water and the life it nurtures; she is the forest fire and the life that rises phoenix-like from the ashes; she is wrath and she is love. Beyond death she gives peace, freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. That is Eve's path."

Opening her eyes she came face to face with Kurtis who was watching her intensely, a slight frown upon his features. Turning to DeCombel he asked, "Eve is the river? As in, Adam and Eve?"

"Could be, could be. You know vairy well that many major religions 'ave been based on close encounters with zis other power. They all 'ave the archetype God or Goddess, and it is natural to think of the source of life as a mother, as female. But _she is the river?_ That makes vairy little sense… I think they 'ave simply named the river for simplicity's sake."

"Er, it actually looks it should be pronounced A-va, actually." Lara added, looking at the sheet. "Its written E-V-E, but this all has a weird pronunciation, it sometimes uses 'E's where there should be an 'A' sound in English."

"Ava, that sounds kinda like a mix of the two names, Adam and Eve." Kurtis's concentration turned back on her. She felt like she was caught in floodlights when he looked at her with those eyes, as if he could see right through her, into her thoughts.

Looking back down to the map she pointed to two identical locations on the two Earth maps. "These words here are the only ones which match up with any on the… third map. They're all in the same place on each dial."

"Where are they pointing to?"

Catching the Atlas DeCombel threw to her, she checked each against a map. "They're referred to in the manuscript as doorways… or dams. The first is near the source of the Amazon river in Brazil… the second is Cappadocia, Turkey."

Comprehension hit them both at the same time, like a lightning bolt. His deep voice was barely a murmur as he looked up from the map into her. "We're going to have to split up."

* * *

As darkness began to fall, DeCombel retired to his sleeping quarters, exhausted from his twenty-four hours without sleep, leaving Lara and Kurtis alone to work out what was happening next.

"So we're agreed, I'll take the Amazon, you'll take Cappadocia."

"Yes," she sighed, handing him a sheet covered in her own writing, "this describes the exact location you should be looking for. I found it in the herbal section." She handed him the part of the manuscript with the non-existent plants described in it.

He let out a soft laugh. "Recognise this?" he pointed out a sharp, exotic looking flower.

Eyes, widening, she remembered the enormous plant near the top of the Biosphere, and more vividly, the blood dripping from its beautiful petals onto the guard who lay dead below it.

"Lovely..." he commented, the word saturated with sarcasm. It dawned on her that Eckhardt had been trying to recreate some of these otherworldly blossoms for their alchemical properties.

"Yes, when they're not trying to bite your head off. Homicidal broccoli with attitude problems aren't quite my cup of tea."

Laughing, he stroked a stray hair behind her ear. "God I'm gonna miss you and your fucking 'sense of humour'."

"Or lack thereof," she replied with a grin. Leaning in, their lips met for the briefest of moments. "Why do we have to go two separate ways?"

"You know why. We're running out of time and if Karel catches one of us, we're both in the trap."

She hated herself for the way she was feeling right now. She was Lara Croft, renown adventurer and treasure seeker. She never before needed a companion to travel. At least not for long. Except she couldn't shake the mysterious feeling that next time they parted ways… it would be the last time they saw each other alive.

Don't be so stupid Lara, she berated herself.

He jerked from her embrace suddenly, falling to his knees and clutching his head.

She got down on the ground beside him, shaking him. "What's wrong? Kurtis! Can you hear me! KURTIS!"

His eyes were clouded over; he couldn't see nor hear her.

_It is going to happen, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. You are a weak mortal, foolishly holding off the inevitable, as if it will destroy you any less. I will kill her, and then I will kill you. And you will not even be reunited in the afterlife, oh no. I am making sure of that._

Kurtis stood up in the river, feeling its gentle tug at his legs. It flowed through his clothes, and yet did not wet them. Karel's voice thundered across the mental plane like an approaching storm.

_What are you planning on doing Karel?_ He spat back.

_Ah, but that is the surprise; you shall see soon enough. Suffice to say that there is no rest for the wicked. Not even in death._ Kurtis could almost hear the malevolent satisfaction in his words. _These idiotic human feelings you have for her will only increase your misery, so go ahead, fall deeper. It will be amusing to watch your broken spirit dissolve into the river for eternity, lost and abandoned, unable to forget. _

_Don't be so sure of yourself you evil bastard. I'm gonna be standing right there between you and those doorways, and if I'm going down, I'm fucking taking you with me._

And with tremendous effort, he severed the connection Karel had managed to force upon him. The river was sucked out of him abruptly as he rejoined the mortal world. He came to, facing a very worried Lara.

Standing up, he pushed her away and turned his back to her, facing the wall.

"Kurtis, what-"

"Go Lara."

"Excuse me?" she put her hands on her hips in disbelief and annoyance.

"Lara, I said go. Take the car to the airport and go." She opened her mouth to protest, but knew he wasn't going to tell her anything.

He leaned against the wall with both hands, his forehead resting against the dark wood panelling. She could see the tattoo beneath the thin white cotton shirt he wore, black as night and twisting serpent-like across his shoulder blades.

Confused and worried, she ignored him and stepped forward, winding her arms around him, embracing him from behind. Sliding her hands beneath his shirt, she made contact with his taut skin, stretched tight over his abdominal muscles, and rested her face against his neck.

All she had to do was skim her hands lower below his waistband, listen to his breathing quicken, feel his pulse race, feel him lose control beneath her touch. And there was nothing she wanted more than to touch him, to be touched by him, to get so close she couldn't even decipher where one person started and the other began.

She wanted to watch him unravel under her fingertips, wanted to watch him lose his grip as he fell into ecstasy. She wanted to cause him so much pleasure he forgot all the pain he'd had to bear.

Her hands stopped at the soft skin above his waistband as a shiver ran the length of his spine, the tremor making his hips shake in her grip.

He could never tell her how much he wanted her, how he wanted to leave so many marks on her skin that she wouldn't be able to move without feeling them for days, without them reminding her what caused them, and the pleasure she got from them- from him. He wanted to get lost in her eyes and her skin and her love, and never have to surface again. If she started, he knew he wouldn't be strong enough to stop her. He wouldn't be strong enough to leave her.

"_Lara…_" he spoke her name softly and warningly, savouring the taste it left on his tongue.

She let go of him. Twisting her hands into her hair wretchedly, she tore herself away from him. Not trusting herself, she left for her room.

Turning around, he leaned with his back to the wall and slid down it, resting his face in his palms, trying to think clear thoughts.

It was a while before he could get up again.

* * *

Throwing her bag into the back of the car, she looked back at the house, searching all its windows for a shadow, but there was none there. Wrenching the door open, she crammed the key into the ignition and twisted it violently, before tearing out of the driveway.

She hadn't looked near the garage where a lone figure stamped out a cigarette beneath one leather boot.

Getting onto the Ducati motorbike he had taken out of the garage, his hands automatically went to the dog tags that should have hung around his neck. The dog tags he had left in Lara's bag as proof. Proof that he was going to do all he could to get them back.

_But just in case I fail, at least you can hate me like the bastard I am and eventually get over me. Eventually move on and forget about me._

Kicking the bike into gear, he pulled the helmet onto his head and felt the masculine roar of the machine between his legs.

_At least you'll be able to forget._

And he thundered off into the warm night, in the opposite direction to Lara.


	9. A Woman Complete

Looking out of open door of the sleek stealth aircraft, the Amazon was little more than a mile long sapphire snake, sheathed in an ambiguous early morning mist, winding stealthily around a lush emerald background. The wind whipped nosily at his camouflage combats and the black t-shirt that clung to him, giving him the idea that he should have put on the light clothing after free-falling through the freezing atmosphere. He turned to face the two men driving the airplane and gave two thumbs up. The men grinned back at him, each with dog tags identical to those Kurtis had.

"Bonne chance Kurtis!"

"Fais attention!" The other yelled over the combined bellow of wind and engine.

"Comme toujours!" And with a mock salute, he stepped as casually out of the door as if there was a pavement outside.

Looking out of the window, he was nothing more than an oval of gracefully gliding parachute to the two men, before the sea of green swallowed him.

* * *

Folding up the parachute and leaving it high in a tree should he ever need to call it telekinetically, he halted to take stock of his surroundings. Studying the dense jungle upstream he glanced longingly back at the less crowded greenery behind him.

_Follow the yellow brick road. _He sighed, looking towards the river and moving stealthily forward.

There was the faintest of shuffling sounds on the opposite bank of the river and he caught sight of something small slithering forward with unnatural speed. It was nothing but a split-second blur of mottled green. He stopped, wide eyed and tense, drinking in the silence. He didn't move again until he knew it was safe.

_And that would be the munchkins I suppose. Typical, _he thought sarcastically, _something tells me they're not trying to lead me back to Kansas.__  
_

A few minutes passed without any major drama, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there were things just out of the corner of his eye, flitting in and out of the thickening jungle shoots with menacing ease. Pausing, an enormous shiver coursed the length of his spine. Shaking it off, he continued. The vegetation was becoming harder and harder to navigate, plants twining into each other like determined lovers, creating a relentless barrier between him and his destination.

_Screw this, _he thought, tucking the Chirugai into his belt after it had been caught in vines for the thousandth time. Looking up at the impenetrable layer of branches and leaves that was becoming denser and darker as he progressed, he saw a likely looking tree.

Climbing nimbly up the wood, he crouched on a branch, and broke though the suffocating jade canvas that encased the jungle. It was like breaking the surface of a dark murky lake to sunlight and air, the world above was a completely different atmosphere to that of below; birds sang to each other, exotic insects soaked up the sun, and the world was nothing but an ocean of green and buzzing life. Taking a final breath of that sweet air, he ducked under, returning to the close, damp air of the rainforest.

He continued forward through the trees, which were so close together at this stage he barely had to jump a few meters to reach the next one. Concentrating on the opposite tree, he took aim to jump and ran along the branch, his heavy boots jarring it violently. There was a cracking noise, and it snapped.

Yelling with the shock, he had enough sense to grab the vine that brushed against his face as gravity took hold of him. Swinging like some kind of warped caricature of Tarzan, he saw the next tree coming looming towards him with terrifying speed and lifted his legs to absorb the shock-

SLAM.

Uncrossing his eyes, he looked down at the branch between his legs, agonizing pain erupting from his groin. Letting out a sharp breath, he fell back against the next branch, and curled in on himself. A number of expletives later, he kneeled, pulling his waistband forward to check he hadn't just been castrated. Cursing again, he managed to stand, still holding himself.

Kurtis glared at the treacherous branch, he saw the problem. What had appeared on the outside to be a healthy, strong rainforest tree was black and withered on the inside, hollow and infested with writhing white insects, fat from feeding on its insides.

Looking back at the tree he was standing on, he lifted the Chirugai and the blades released. Frowning, he thrust it deep into the tree bark and ripped it out, stepping back to avoid the insects which were rotting this tree internally too.

He hadn't noticed that the birds had stopped calling to each other, the only sound now being the weak trickle of the river. The jungle atmosphere had suddenly become a lot darker and intense than a few minutes previously.

He was close.

* * *

Stopping the jeep near the sheer wall of rock, she slid out, shielding her face against the glaring Turkish sun. Pulling her backpack from the vehicle, she kneeled before the dark opening she had been searching for all day and picked up a handful of sand, watching it slip through her fingers.

_Egypt. _The atmosphere reeked of it. Not even noticing she had done it, her hand gripped the dog tags around her neck.

Lara stepped into the dry, dark cavern, turning her back on the sun.

* * *

Dropping to a crouch from the branch, he stepped over the Amazon River, now little more than a stream.

He had seen it from the treetops. Turning away from the river, he climbed through a thicket of forest into a small clearing. When his eyes became accustomed to the light again, he found it.

Kurtis circled around the misshapen lump of stone, running his hands over the surface. Kneeling before it he saw various other chunks of masonry lying around it, each covered in ancient moss. Flipping one over, he lifted it and looked into a face. He almost dropped it with surprise.

_This was a statue… but it's been hacked to bits. Why? _he sought the answer in the beautiful carved features which sorrowfully implored him to find the answer.

Lara's voice echoed in his head.

_The only time I don't feel hollow is with you.__  
_

Looking around at the gloomy, diseased forest which pressed in on the little haven of sunlight, he wondered why that moment came to him. Closing his eyes, he could still see the look on her face, feel the metal banister crush beneath his fingertips, remember the feeling of being whole, complete.

_How could I forget._ he sighed, looking down at the figure in his hand, Lara's soft features fading to be replaced by that of the broken stone woman. _Complete…_ the idea finally struck him.

Getting to his feet, he pulled a heavy block of stone from its mossy bed and inspected it. It was the top half of the statue. Standing back, he flicked both hands easily up into the air.

Every piece of stone was raised, floating in the air like gravity had simply forgotten about them. He walked between each slowly revolving rock and gradually began to piece the woman back together.

While he worked, he became aware he was being watched. Whatever he had met earlier upon hiding his parachute, there were a great many of them, and they had him surrounded. They seemed afraid to enter the circle of the clearing however, and none set foot within the miniature Eden.

He pretended not to notice the quiet shuffling, or see the mottled blurs that crept out of the corners of his vision, but he kept watch silently, sneaking glances from beneath his dark hair as he bent under and between the stone.

When the statue had taken form, and there was only one piece left, he stepped closer to inspect it. It appeared to be a woman dressed in flowing robes, her dress seemed oddly akin to water, and where it reached her feet it poured out in billowing waves. Looking at the mournful expression on the face in his hand, he pressed it back into its original place, the woman complete.

His hand still on her face, he felt the warm trickle of water drop onto his hand. The statue was crying.

His piercing blue eyes wide with shock, he noticed that the complete statue didn't look sorrowful at all, in fact it was the direct opposite- these were tears of joy.

A few drops hit the ground near his feet, and the earth beneath him began to rumble with a loud crack. The ground disappeared beneath his feet, the whole world going dark as he fell.

* * *

**A/N:** Review please! More of this, less of that? And lol apologies to Kurtis for the George of the Jungle prank. I couldn't help myself. :D 


	10. A Woman Undone

**A/N:** I'm almost finished the next chapter (its a nice long one), which is why I'm chancing this scandalously short, cliffhanger one... I am so flipping dead...

* * *

Kurtis groaned as he sat up, feeling the tender place on the back of his head where he had been knocked out. The sky was nothing more than a postage-stamp space of light above him. If he hadn't cushioned his fall with telekinesis before he blacked out, he probably wouldn't have survived. The entire back of his shirt had been shredded from the slide against the wall, and there was an enormous slash down his thigh. Gasping as a sharp pain made him wince, he put a hand through one of the tears and touched a hand to his side. 

_Broken rib… great.  
_

Shrugging off the pain and trying to block it out, he walked on down the passage.

He could barely see, he was relying on his other senses to guide him, feeling his way down the path until he caught sight of a pale blue light dancing on the ground ahead, like the reflection of light off water.

He stepped through the arch into an enormous hall, sucking in an "oh" of surprise which echoed cavernously, whispering back at him from darkened corners which had not seen life for many millennia.

A pathway of stone led to a fountain in the distance. Either side of the path, a vast expanse of glimmering liquid stretched into the darkness. There was absolutely no light in this place, yet the water was reflecting an opalescent radiance onto the distant ceiling and painting the stone trail silver.

As he walked guardedly along the stone, the surface began to ripple away from the path where he stood, as if his feet were touching the quiet, still water. The only resonating sound was the soft pad of his heavy boots, and the steady flow of the fountain.

Upon reaching it, he saw it was a very simple design, a single jet of water shooting up into the darkness, falling into a shallow basin of water and spilling over the edges, off the path and into the lakes either side. He thrust a hand into the wall of falling water, parting it like a curtain. It was cool, but not cold, soft and cleansing. He turned his palm in its gentle caress.

It began to trail up his arm, flowing against gravity.

Rapidly yanking his hand away, the liquid followed, still flowing upstream in nothing but air. It encased his arm, streaming up his chest and down over his stomach-

And then whatever force it had, left it, and it splashed quietly to the floor like normal water, dripping silently from his soaked form.

Kurtis reached around to his broken rib, pressing against it. There was no pain. The long gashes down his back from his earlier skid were gone. Pulling off his drenched and torn shirt, the slowly healing circle of skin where Boaz skewered him was nothing more than a faint crescent-shaped scar, a lighter colour to the tanned skin around it.

Sliding into farsee, the fountain was not the normal red hue; it was bright, shining white, tumbling playfully over the side and into the lakes, which slowly bled into the ruby colour.

This water was the river. He had never seen anything like it before. At least not in the mortal world…

He became aware of the sound of more falling water from further ahead, and by stepping around the fountain and continuing along the path, it was obvious that this was a far larger body of liquid from the thundering noise, which vibrated up the path into his legs as he walked. A carpet of mist rolled towards him from further ahead, thick and grey.

The waterfall came into view, blooming from high above and flowing sleekly into the waiting mist. The path ended below the spray, and Kurtis very nearly fell off the edge, hidden beneath the dense vapour. Looking into the panel of descending liquid, it was as clear and reflective as a mirror; he could actually see a twin pair of ice blue eyes looking right back at him.

He felt a compelling tug from somewhere about his navel, and pressed a palm flat against his stomach. His eyes slid out of focus irresistibly, as he began seeing the waterfall from the other side… from within the river.

* * *

_Ah, Mr Trent. How nice of you to join us._ Karel walked calmly towards Kurtis, but it was still as though they were both separated by the sheet of falling water- like a pane of glass.

Jolting at the word "us," he looked over Joachim's broad, black shoulder.

_Lara… oh God Lara…_ His entire body went numb, his insides replaced by lead.

She was standing in the middle of the chamber, frozen in place by some invisible power, and had obviously put up one hell of a fight; her beautiful form was peppered with scratches and newly forming bruises.

_When I caught up with you, I noticed a few things were wrong… the most primary being your carelessness. You could have disappeared from sight so easily, slid into the background, I was expecting to have such a difficult time in locating you, but it was ridiculously easy. Too easy in fact. You were trying to distract me. So I decided to take a little detour, and you will never guess who I bumped into- _

_You sick bastard-_

_It is rude to interrupt,_ Karel interjected contemptuously,_ we could keep this civilised… or would you prefer to go down the same road as Lara?_ He pointed to her struggling figure_. Mortals… always taking the difficult route._ His face fell, malicious intent carved into his features_. You know what I want._

_You do what he wants and I swear I'll never forgive you._ Lara's surprisingly calm voice entered the conversation.

He looked through the glassy water, seeing her still resisting and his expression softened, his heart constricting painfully to see her in the trap that he had meant for himself. Karel pinched the bridge of his nose with irritation, sighing.

_Very well. The difficult route it is then._

Turning sharply, he threw a hand out towards Lara and her struggling increased tenfold, her brown eyes wide as she gasped for air that was not reaching her lungs.

He was strangling her.

Kurtis cried out, a scream of rage so filled with anger and hatred at Karel, at life, at himself for being so stupid, so helpless, unable to do anything… falling to his knees he reached out telekinetically, but the water was like an impassable brick wall.

Her motions slowed.

_Looking through at her, her image flickered, and he saw her beautiful face bruised and slashed, saw her eyes flicker shut for the last time. Using her last breath, she whispered his name once, sadness, pain and love all embracing the two syllables of himself, and he felt her spirit leave her._

Violently punching and attacking the ground beneath his knees, he yelled in fury and sorrow, the sound tearing through his throat. She was gone. The only reason he had left to live was gone.

The life even seemed to have been sucked from her braid as it hung forlornly at her shoulder, her head limp, never to be raised again.

Karel turned back to him, his face inscrutable. _Your wrath only serves my purpose more. You know what must be done. _

No. Kurtis stood steadily, his face contorted in hatred. The Chirugai sprang to life from the floor, circling him with bright orange flame._ I gave her the choice, and you know I did._

Karel laughed derisively. _And you really think that she will choose the right path? You are weak, all of you._

Catching the Chirugai one-handed, he replied, eyes narrowed in loathing, _I would put my life in her hands._

Karel, realising what he was about to do, was knocked momentarily off balance, and moved towards the screen of water, trying to stop the inevitable.

He looked directly into Karel's pale eyes.

_That's your true fault Karel, you underestimate us 'mortals'._

And he threw the Chirugai at the partition, cleaving an enormous gap in the falls, blurring his enemy. Kurtis ran straight after it, jumping the fissure and plunging headfirst into the waiting barrier of cascading water.

* * *

_Where am I…? _

…who am I?

Water tugged at her feet. It pulled her comfortingly, whispering to her of peace and calm, of thrills and excitement; it promised her eternal adventure beyond anything she had ever experienced. It flowed around her ankles lovingly, adoringly, slowly moving upwards over her, against gravity. Looking around her, the waterway had no banks, it was nothing but a river between two waterfalls that ran as far as the eye could see.

She dropped to her knees, watching the sparkling liquid caress her pale limbs, noticing there was no colour here. Her colourless braid fell from her shoulder to kiss the waiting stream, her entire body devoid of any hue, everything with the same appearance of the opalescent water.

Catching sight of her reflection, the person looking back at her was familiar, and yet so strange. Her head suddenly felt so heavy, so tired, and she let it drop beneath the water, breathing it in and out easily. She wanted to lie in it and let it carry her away…

_Lara… _the name of the reflection came to her, and she stopped, her entire body suddenly heavy as lead.

_Wait, that's my name. I'm Lara._

Trying to stand proved far more difficult than it should have been… the current pulled her, called to her, dripped from her slowly and reluctantly as she got to her feet, everything suddenly feeling so much heavier and harder to carry. She couldn't… she had something to do… if only she could remember…

The water ahead of her began to swirl like a whirlpool, flowing upwards, a pillar of twisting water. It began to form an hourglass shape, a figure, its features becoming more defined… it was a woman, and she was walking towards Lara.

She knew at once who it was.

_Ava._

The woman smiled.

* * *

**A/N:** Next chapter coming soon! runs from flaming torches 


	11. Hope

**A/N:** Hey guys, apologies for taking so long in getting this up- its been up a few months on the Sani, its just taken me this long to get around to watering it down for As always, never hesitate to contact me, and if you could please leave a review when you've finished I will love you for eternity. :D Really, it means a lot to me that people read this, so huge thanks to all you who review. I'll shut up now! Enjoy!

* * *

Her voice was clear and elegant.

_Hello Lara._

_What am I doing here?_

_Wrong question._

_How do I get back?_

A flash of orange caught Lara's eye, skimming past behind the glassy walls of falling water that lined the length of the river. The colour brought memories flooding back. _Kurtis…_

It hurt to remember his name.

_Your lover is searching for you._

_He is not my lover. He doesn't love me._

_Then why would he plunge headfirst into death itself, without leaving his body behind as an anchor, if not for love?_

A fiery gash of orange ran the full length of the liquid corridor.

_I'm sure he has his reasons. _She crossed her arms. Ava raised her face, a wise look upon her crystal-clear, ageless visage.

_Ah. But then what made you stand up by yourself, instead of just being carried away?_ Her tone was one of polite curiosity, as is such when one already knows the answer.

Lara did not want to think of him right now. _And what has this to do with anything?_

_Everything._

_I mean, what am I supposed to do now?_

_There is nothing more for you to do, you have already made the choice._

Wanting to avoid further cryptic answers, Lara thought her question through before asking.

_Did I make the right choice?_

_Right and wrong… nothing is ever that simple. For you there is only what is right and what is easy. You stood. Out of love or hatred, or whatever you would care to think of it as- but you are still standing. He gave you the ability to choose._

_Why did Karel kill me?_

_He expected your lover to either kill himself or go into a blind rage, running straight into his hands, seeking revenge. Joachim fails to understand human nature however, and did not even contemplate the reason life prevails; hope. _

_The reason that he is now searching for you._

_Please stop calling him that. His name is Kurtis._

There was an enormous cracking noise, and the fire broke through the falls to her left, a dark blur hitting the opposite wall of water with stomach-churning force. It slumped into the water and didn't move.

Wading through the water with difficulty- it was still trying to drag her down- she found the current slowed to a standstill around the man. Falling to her knees, she shook him, terror gripping her heart.

Kurtis's eyes opened, and with a jolt, she noticed his eyes were still bright blue, and his hair was still raven-dark.

He still had colour, he still had life.

Climbing to his feet laboriously, he tried to take a hold of her hand, but his went straight through her own. He couldn't touch her.

_Lara, you have to come back._

_How? I'm flipping dead, in case you hadn't noticed._

_I can get you back into your body, but I can only do it if you want me to._

For a second, she felt the tug of the river again, the soft swish of its current whispering to her… but no, she couldn't. No matter how much she wanted to hate him, she couldn't. She would follow him, if only to find out _why_.

His actions the last time they had met made it very clear to her that he was only interested in her for reasons of either business or pleasure. He had shut down completely, blocking her out, as if she meant nothing- something he could just push to the back of his mind and forget about, like an itch.

In Lara's angry mind, this was the easiest way to deal with the emotions welling up inside her, and since Egypt, the only way she knew how to live through them. It is much harder to risk loving someone who does not love you back, than it is to hate them.

And so subconsciously she took the easy route, shoving the insecurity to the back of her mind and telling herself: turn your pain to hate. Use it. Feed it. Accomplish something with it.

_I suppose I'll have to. We still have a job to do._

He inwardly flinched at the word 'job'. So this was work to her now, only business. The time they had spent together had meant nothing, though he couldn't blame her for thinking it. _Fucking story of my life, _he thought desolately. He pulled his shoulders back and stood straighter, rebuilding the mental wall of confidence and arrogance he had learned to let down as Lara and he grew closer.

Noticing the subtle change in his stance, it only served to confirm her thoughts even more. Anticipating the fresh surge of pain, her body was already focusing it, using the adrenaline to concentrate on the task at hand. Looking around, Lara noticed Ava had disappeared. The water pulled gently at her feet for a moment, this time reassuringly. No, she wasn't gone.

Kurtis began walking down the path, inspecting the continuous wall of water, looking for something unseen. Watching him, she noticed he had lost his shirt, and there was a tear right down the leg of his jeans, a pale mark visible along his thigh. The tattoo embracing his back was beyond black and into the deep, velvety, pure darkness between stars at night.

She hated herself for still being irresistibly attracted to him, for still finding his taut skin, his voice, his character- even the things she hated, completely desirable.

Finding whatever he was looking for within the falls, he threw the Chirugai in the air, catching it once and pulling it back, hurling it powerfully at the barrier of water. The cracking noise sounded again, like giant mountains of ice suddenly cleaving in half. Looking back at her, he put a hand out and then touched it to his lips, indicating she should stay quiet. He then disappeared out of her sight completely through the break in the water.

The hand reappeared, motioning her to follow, and she did.

* * *

Kurtis stepped into the cavern cautiously, moving alertly and keeping his eyes trained on the entrance. Karel was nowhere to be seen. _Not surprising really, _he thought. Turning back to the bright light, a figure walked out from it.

"Anything happens, run for the river, and don't look back."

Feeling her heart twisting as she looked at him, she realised all along his gestures of concern and care had been driven by his need for her help, and nothing else. He had come to her home for his Chirugai. He had used her as some kind of vessel for his own blood, her Clarity was useful in finding Karel. In finding his revenge.

Nevertheless, _she_ now needed _his_ help. She followed him, her skin still translucent and moving, as if she were made of the water itself.

Looking back into the cavern, it took his eyes a while to readjust to the darkness, and when it did, he paused, the sight of Lara's dead body hitting him like a ton of bricks. He got to his knees and lifted her head from the dusty floor, feeling the cold already invading her form.

She felt strangely detached from the situation as Kurtis brushed his hands lightly over the cuts marring her body's soft features, wishing he could heal them. As he cradled her head in his lap, she felt bizarrely jealous.

He threw a hand out to the break in the river. The water began to pour out swiftly, reaching him and flowing around them both. "Lie down," he told her.

_But it'll carry me-_

"No it won't. I'll control it."

She looked at him sceptically.

Returning her look, he said simply, "You're gonna have to trust me."

"_You're trusting me?" he had asked, head turned to the side, dark hair framing the beautiful crystal eyes observing her with confusion._

…_alright._ She kneeled, hesitating for a moment whether to trust her soul to this man. Finally laying herself down, she felt the current sweep her back into her body.

Kurtis rested his head against her neck and breathed, the warmth spreading through her body from where he touched her. He pressed a hand against her chest, reaching into her telekinetically, squeezing her heart lightly. It began to beat again. He let out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding, and felt his own heart beat in reply.

Her oxygen-starved lungs took a desperate gasp of air, and her eyes flew wide.

* * *

"Can you feel this?"

"Yes."

"What about this?"

"N- wait," she paused as Kurtis pinched her calf, "yes- I can feel something."

Picking up her hand and making swirling movements along her palm and wrist, he looked up at her, pleased with the past few minutes progress, the smile on his face akin to that of the picture where he held the Chirugai for the first time. "Yeah, the numbness is going. Can you try getting up and walking?"

Her skin still deathly pale, she turned onto her knees, and grasping a stalagmite, pulled herself upright and took a few steps, shaking out her ankles and rolling back her shoulders. She stumbled and he threw out an arm to catch her, but she knocked it away. "I'm fine, thanks," her apathetic response stung, giving nothing away. As she began to leave he called out to her to wait.

Kurtis faced the crack in the river and held both hands out parallel to each other, slowly bringing them together with great force, and as he did so, the river healed up, recalling the water back into itself. The join was nothing more than a hairline fracture of light, and then it was closed fully.

"Demon hunting rule number one; always close doors behind you. You never know what might follow you through," he added gravely.

* * *

They walked vigilantly through winding corridors, passing through enormous underground cities, carved straight from the rock, entire houses built from solid stone. Where there should have been sky there was nothing but darkness, a ceiling so high it was not visible. It was eerie down here, as it is with any deserted metropolis, only this was different, as if it hadn't been _humans_ who had lived down here… the doorways were too large in some places and too small in others, very oddly shaped…

Reaching a solid wall, he frowned. "Where now?"

She pointed upwards, to a small circle of light far above.

"Let me guess, you fell? Yeah I had one of those too… c'mere, I'll give you a booster." He stretched his hands out.

"But how will you get up?"

"Just worry 'bout yourself for now, ok?" grasping her foot with both hands, she jumped, and he pushed her higher telekinetically. Landing on the cave floor above, she looked back down at him.

Kurtis eyed up a likely wall, running up it and kicking off, hitting the opposite wall and jumping again, kicking again and jumping, gradually pushing himself higher and higher up the narrow channel. With a grunt, he kicked once more, hard, and launched himself out of the fissure, rolling with the heavy landing.

Standing up and dusting himself off, Lara realized her mouth was open and closed it before he saw. She continued walking towards the cave opening, and towards daylight, Kurtis close behind.

He grabbed the keys from under the dashboard and threw her a smirk as he climbed into the driving seat.

"Oh no you don't," Lara began, striding towards him angrily.

* * *

"Still sulking are you?" Lara grinned over at Kurtis, who was now sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the window, arms folded across his bare chest in a surly manner.

"I'm not sulking," he replied shortly, eyes narrowed. "Sorry if I don't seem in the best mood, but the huge crater in the back of my head is kinda making that difficult right now," he pointed to the small trickle of blood making its own interesting pattern along the black tattoo.

"Its only a little cut, don't be such a baby. Besides, a lady is entitled to protect herself against big bad-mannered brutes trying to steal her car keys. It was self defense." Her own tough veneer was back up again, and he noticed this with an ache.

"Oh sure, grinding someone's head into the sand with the back of a gun, that's self defense all right," leaning over right into her face, he added sardonically, "some lady that makes you." He spat sand out the open window on her side before leaning back.

_We're right back at the start_, Lara sighed. _Back to the meaningless banter._

* * *

It was dark by the time they reached the hotel Lara had booked into when she had arrived in Cappadocia. She stopped by the desk, inquiring about getting Kurtis a room also. The only one suitable was right next to hers.

"They are adjoining rooms, connected by one door. I hope that is not a problem for you and your husband here-"

"Mr DeVille," she smiled.

_Buy yourself a new imagination, yeah?_

Ignoring the deep voice in her head she continued smiling at the receptionist, a little too flirtatiously, knowing it would piss Kurtis off. "And he's not my husband."

The man behind the counter grinned back and moved closer to her, but a strong arm grasped hers and pushed her towards the staircase.

"Kurtis, do you mind?" she asked indignantly. "I was talking to-"

"I know what you were doing, now come on," he answered brusquely, steering her up the stairs and along the plush hallway. Reaching her door, she shoved him away violently, but anticipating it, he pushed back, pressing her into it. Feeling her lift her leg to knee him, he pushed his own knee between her legs to stop her, trapping her between his own body and the door.

"This how you get your kicks Kurtis?" she asked, teeth gritted, "pushing unarmed women around?"

"First of all, you're not unarmed, and you know it," he ran his hand up her thigh, pressing against the knife concealed in the waistband of her underwear, "and second-" he pressed his knee harder against her, finding the place he knew would still her with great skill- "you always have to be in control, don't you? Don't like it when the tables are turned…"

Feeling the pulse in her wrist begin to race from where he held it clamped above her head, he held his open mouth an alluringly short distance from her throat, a dangerous glint in his eye, "or maybe you do…"

Being forced so hard up against him was doing strange things to Lara's psyche, and she was having a difficult time trying not to press back against him, her body screaming to have him close again… but her head telling her to get out of this… get out…

He stepped slowly away, and she had to push herself further back into the door to keep from following him. He casually flicked a hand at the door next to hers and walked in, the door clicking shut behind him.

Fumbling with the key, she shakily let herself through the door and was suddenly overtaken with anger. She flung the keys at her bed and went to the door that joined the two rooms, hurling it open, a furious retort on the tip of her tongue.

Kurtis, quite not expecting this attack, looked up from the bag he had called telekinetically, twisting swiftly to face her head on.

"What the hell is your problem? You're all over me one second, and the next, you can't get far enough away from me!"

"And women are always complaining men don't get it?" he turned away.

"Don't get what?" she fired at his back, watching the muscles there move as he heaved a sigh.

"Forget it."

"Forget what? You have to _know_ something in order to forget it you irritating, hypocritical dickhead," she spat as he turned his head to look at her, the baby blue eyes giving nothing away. "You _absolute_ _fucking_… fucking…" she groped about for the worst insult she could throw at him… "MAN!" she finished, slamming the door in his face.

* * *

Subduing her intense frustration, she kicked the dresser, and a CD slid out from underneath the stereo on top of it. The previous occupants had left it behind. Dusting it off and reading the band, she smiled grimly, and clicked it into the player.

* * *

_EVERY DAY I LOVE YOU LESS AND LESS_

The Kaiser Chiefs yelled at him through the door that led to Lara's room.

Narrowing his eyes at the door like it had personally offended him; he repressed a sudden urge to hurl something heavy at it.

_I CAN'T BELIEVE ONCE YOU AND ME DID SEX_

_ITS MAKES ME SICK TO THINK OF YOU UNDRESSED_

_SINCE EVERY DAY I LOVE YOU LESS AND LESS_

_AND EVERY DAY I LOVE YOU LESS AND LESS_

_YOU'RE TURNING INTO SOMETHING I DETEST_

"_Argh_!" he growled, grasping at his hair and pulling it, teeth gritted. Throwing himself at the bed, he stuffed a pillow in his mouth and clamped another above his head.

* * *

The moon cast its pale light across the white bed sheet where Kurtis lay contemplating the ceiling, a hand behind his head.

There was a soft click and he glanced up to see Lara closing her door behind herself. Sitting up quickly he watched as she walked silently to the foot of his bed and pulled the band from her braid, shaking it loose around her shoulders. He realized he had never really seen her with her hair down before, and it was beautiful.

"Lara, what-"

Her only response was to slip the dressing gown she was wearing from her shoulders, letting it drop to the floor.

His eyes went wide as she got to her hands and knees on the bed and crept up his body. Her loose hair brushed his chest lightly, and it was the most intimate thing he had ever felt, something of hers he had not yet fully touched and caressed. Lifting his hands, he twined them through it, and she kissed him gently for a moment, before he pulled away, stroking a thumb across her lips, looking into her soft brown eyes.

They pressed into each other with newfound desperation, covering each other in slow, burning kisses. Lara ground into him, trailing her mouth down his neck, elicting a moan from deep within his throat. He gasped, closing his eyes. "I love you," he breathed pulling her face close to kiss her.

"What?" she asked, confused, "you don't know what you're saying-" she said between sharp intakes of breath.

"No, no its not-" he turned her over, her face in both his hands, "I love you." The intensity in his eyes made her understand, he was telling the truth.

She grasped a hold of the dog tags around his neck, pulling him to her…

But wait… _she_ still had his dog tags…

Sitting up in the bed with a gasp, his skin covered in a thin layer of perspiration, Kurtis woke. "Fuck…" he moaned, jerking his hand from his trousers as if he had just electrocuted himself. "Shit," he cursed again, throwing his legs out of the bed to sit on the edge, resting his head in his hands. He shivered as a breeze fluttered across his bare back.

Looking behind him, the window was firmly shut. There was nowhere that a draft of cool night air could have found its way in. Unless… he looked at the door to Lara's room and got up from the bed, striding towards it, a determined look upon his face.

* * *

Lara had barely enough time to pull into her body and back away from the doorway as it blew open.

"Voyeur!" he accused with an incredulous expression.

"Don't be stupid, how could I-"

"Don't play innocent with me Croft, you were using farsee to spy on me while I was sleeping."

She couldn't help the wicked grin that spread itself across her face. "Didn't look like you were doing much sleeping…" she trailed off, her eyes sliding down his athletic physique, over his hips, his arousal still visibly obvious.

Rolling his eyes, he left the doorway, walking into the bathroom. Wanting to torment him further as a way of easing her own torture, Lara followed. He climbed into the shower and hit the on button, ducking into the cold spray. Angling his hips into the stream and leaning against the wall, she watched the water dance across his skin, raising goose bumps and turning his black pajama bottoms slick, clinging to every hard, muscled curve of his body. That and so much more.

With another smile, she twisted the heat lever.

Jumping out of the shower with a yelp, he turned on her. "Bitch." He breathed dangerously, eyes narrowed against the water streaming off him.

"Bastard. Really Kurtis, I can do this all night."

"What the hell do you want?"

"I know why you did it." she crossed her arms, her face suddenly serious, and leaned in the bathroom doorway.

"Took you long enough." He pushed past her and wrapped a towel around his shoulders, pressing it into his hair.

"Is that it? You don't want to know what I think? Why I think it?"

He slowed toweling his head for a moment, looking at her through mussed-up hair. "Right now, after that little episode? After that I don't think I'd piss on you if you were on fire."

"God, you are the most stubborn man I have ever met!"

"_I'm_ the stubborn one? You really are un-fucking-believable, you know that?" he laughed harshly.

"Try and understand this one yourself, you don't just screw me, you screw with my _mind_. I lose control. I do stupid things. I have never, _ever,_" she enunciated,_ "_felt so out of control as I do around you and yes, it freaks me out," she raised her hands to her head. "You get inside here, and you fuck me. I feel like I'm going crazy."

"Lara," he began, unusually calmly, "just cause I'm the one with the mind control here, doesn't mean I'm the only one using it. Watch this."

He moved close to her, lifting her onto the dresser with a surprising gentleness. Getting even closer still, he stilled her protests with his mouth. He tilted his head into the kiss, and she absently slid her arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer. She felt the muscles moving his shoulder blades as his hands skimmed the length of her arms, maddeningly lightly.

"Do something to me," he whispered, voice low and husky against her lips.

"Like what?" she asked in a hushed tone. Right now, she'd streak down the street in broad daylight if he asked her in that voice.

Gently pulling her hand from around his shoulder, he moved it between them, laying it flat against his taut stomach and sliding it down to meet the soaked fabric of his trousers.

Finally able to touch him, she took to her task with pleasure, stroking him, his skin stretched deliciously smooth and taut with desire. His hands went to the wood either side of her, gripping the dresser hard, gritting his teeth against a groan that threatened to vocalize itself.

CRACK.

CRACK.

SMASH.

Kurtis was now holding two cracked pieces of wood, and the mirror behind her head had fractured into tiny pieces, dusting her in a fine layer of reflective particles.

"You think you're out of control? _That's_ out of control." he backed away from her and the broken dresser, his point made.

Her body screamed in the absence of his in a way her mouth could never articulate.

"Chicken."

His expression darkened in confusion.

"I _said_, chicken."

"Lara, I'd probably break your back by mistake with the way my powers are."

"That's what they all say… promises, promises… but no one ever delivers." she raised an eyebrow at him, brushing against him as she walked past. His eyes flickered with want as she did so, but he stayed as upright and calm as ever.

She glanced at his soaked black trousers, which hung distractingly low on his hips from the weight of water they were carrying. Looking away from him was extremely difficult. She began playing with her braid, looking determinedly at the broken mirror on the opposite wall, faithfully reflecting a hundred different Laras.

Something clicked in his mind and he walked over to her, taking the plait from her hands and pulling off the band.

"What are you-"

"Shh," he unwound it, shaking her hair out and twisting his hands into the roots. The simple movements of his hands made her tingle from head to foot, resisting the urge to turn her face into his palm and kiss it.

"Show me what you were dreaming."

The motions of his hands stopped, and she looked up at him, their gaze locking. Splaying his strong fingers against her jaw line, his blue eyes slid out of focus, a storm growing behind them. They flickered shut and everything went black.

The last time he had done this was back in the library at her house when he searched through her memories.

Images began to flash past her eyes; she saw her bedroom door open, she saw herself straddling him in the moonlight, surprise, veiled lust and something else darting across his bright eyes in unison. She watched him slide his hands into her hair, lift his mouth from her neck to take a sharp breath, eyes half closed as they connected…

_I love you, _gasped dream Kurtis. Dream Lara pulled him closer…

Snapping out of his mind, she caught her balance using the broken dresser behind her. As Kurtis's eyes cleared, she noticed they were looking down at the floor.

Hesitantly, she spoke. "You were talking in your sleep. I knew."

His eyes still fixed on the floor, he nodded slowly.

_You stupid stubborn idiot, _she thought, _why can't you just stop this? You can put and end to all this right now by just reaching out and touching him. But you won't, because you're a stupid stubborn idiot. You can end all the hate and all the pain._

Walking into him so abruptly he almost fell back, she kissed him with an urgency that he returned, pushing back into her, clasping her face in both hands, kissing her deeper. Her back hit the dresser and she pulled her hands away from him, trying not to fall onto it, but he caught her wrists, balancing her mid-air, sliding his arms around her waist.

He didn't care if she didn't feel the same way, so long as he could still talk to her, touch her, _have_ her.

Her hands went shakily from his face to his hips and back again, wanting to touch him everywhere at once, unable to find one inch of his body more desirable than the other.

A lamp exploded, casting the room into darkness.

Afraid Kurtis might stop she gasped, "Don't… don't stop… screw it…"

"No," he breathed, his voice hot and heavy against her hairline, "I'm screwing you instead."

She could barely breathe, let alone respond like she wanted to. "By the way…" he added, each break in his speech punctuated by a kiss, "don't you dare…"

"ever…"

"die on me again…"

"because if you do…"

He leaned closer to her ear as she gasped.

"I swear I'll go to the ends of the earth to bring you back and kill you again my fucking self."

* * *

The bed cracked cleanly in half.

Seconds, minutes, perhaps even hours later, Lara's shaking limbs reached out, searching for his own and pulling him close. His body was still tense as he drank in the air like he had run twenty miles in one go, his eyes open and unblinking. He relaxed into her embrace, their hearts racing in unison.

"You bastard," she breathed.

"What did I do now?" he answered, equally breathlessly.

"You've made me fall in love with you, you absolute prick."

"What just now? God I'm good," he grinned against her hair.

Too weak to even think of a comeback, she closed her eyes against his chest, their breathing slowing as they fell into slumber.

Kurtis's last coherent thought was; _If that was a dream, I never want to wake up._


	12. Crossed Wires

Kurtis awoke the next morning to a warm but empty bed. The sound of running water from behind the closed bathroom door informed him Lara was in the shower.

--

* * *

--

Lara let the water pour down her, washing away the desert from her skin and the aches from her limbs. Reaching for a towel, she caught sight of the mirror.

I see you, the words written in steam informed her. There was a wicked smiley face just below the telekinetically written words. Grinning widely, she stepped bare-skinned from the shower and walked back into the bedroom, very pointedly using the towel only on her hair.

Smiling politely at Kurtis as if she were fully clothed as he tied his boots innocently on the bed, he returned it with an equally innocent grin, giving her a chaste peck on the cheek as he left.

Taking the steps towards the foyer energetically and with his jacket slung over one shoulder, he greeted the woman behind the counter unusually cheerfully for this time of the morning.

Snapping out of her sleepy reverie, she sat up fully.

"Can I help you?"

"You sure can," he smiled, "can I have two breakfasts sent up to room 117?"

"Of course, I will have room service up right away," the woman smiled prettily back at him, hand going to her wavy dark hair nervously.

"Thank you very much…" his eyes flicked imperceptibly towards the little gold badge on her chest, "…Amanda. That's a beautiful name," he finished with a smile before heading back to his room.

"Thank you- Mr.…" she trailed off, as he looked back, "I'm sorry but I don't have the advantage of a name badge…"

"…Mr. DeVille," he grinned, starting to walk away again, "at least that's what it was the last time I checked!"

"So where to now?" Lara asked, legs crossed on the bed, toast pausing on the way to her mouth.

"I have no idea," Kurtis replied, taking a bite from the toast in her hand and chewing thoughtfully as he leaned back, "anywhere away from here would be a safe bet. Even staying last night was a risk," he looked over at her grimly from his reclining position on the bed.

"I still don't get why Karel fled when you broke through into the river…"

"I dunno if you know this," he tilted his head slightly in its perusal of the ceiling, "but ever heard that demons can't cross a running stream?"

Lara instantly remembered an incident on an island off the coast of Ireland, once when she was young… a demon on a horse had captured Father Dunstan and forced her to find a way to stop the river so it could escape its 'prison'.

"Yes… I've heard it."

Kurtis sensed there was more behind those words but didn't push it. "Yeah, well if normal running water keeps demons in their place, just imagine what the river does to 'em."

"That's why he didn't come into it after you-"

"Yeah, and why he didn't stick around to see me break the river into that cavern. It must be the real reason why he didn't come after me to the Amazon... I was worried that'd happen, that's why I took the route that you obviously would've taken…"

"And at my house… he set those mercenaries on us rather then deal with us himself... why does he seem so reluctant to stand against you?"

"Like I said, it's not me he's worried about, it's the river. He knows I can control it. It's the border between all universes and they found the way to break through, use a conscious living vessel. As a person dies, they're connected with the river just as their soul enters it… like he used my father. It's a stronger connection with a Lux."

Lara's eyes traced his left hand as his fingers drummed against the duvet idly. Still deep in thought, he rolled off the bed and headed to the bathroom, light switch and shower invisibly turning on before the door had even opened.

Despite herself and her troubled thoughts, she smiled.

--

* * *

--

The woman at the reception desk was quite busy at this stage, but when a "Mrs. DeVille" left a message for the mysterious man from earlier, she sighed disappointedly.

Oh well, she thought, watching the dark haired woman bump into a short balding man and apologize, before she headed towards the library across the street.

Amanda DeVille sounded silly anyway.

Turning back to the middle-eastern man politely waiting on room registration, she immediately brightened up. As she bent her head to write his name into the logbook, she didn't see the dark haired woman return a short while later, moving quickly towards the stairs.

--

* * *

--

When Lara entered the room, Kurtis was pulling on a pair of khaki combats and a white t-shirt. Surprising he had much clothes left really, what he didn't wreck himself, she tore off him.

He slid his arms around her waist as she rifled through a black bag on the bed. She turned in his embrace to face him.

"Where'd you go? Where'd you get the black bag?" he questioned interestedly.

"Went to the library to do some research."

"Find anything?" his polite question hung in the air as he went to the bedside cabinet.

"Not much- I wasn't expecting anything really. Just something to take my mind off it all, you know-" she halted as he pointed a gun in her face.

Holding her hands up, her russet eyes widened in fear. "Kurtis! What are you-"

"Sit on the bed, hands over your head."

"If this is your idea of foreplay you've got another thing comi-"

"I said, SIT."

She was mentally shoved backwards onto the bed.

"You know," he reverted back to calm tones, "for a 'disgusting mortal', you've made yourself look kind of passable," his American drawl became clipped, tense. Moving closer, he pressed the silencer barrel to her forehead. She began to shake.

"You're Karel, aren't you?" she exclaimed, voice becoming high pitched with fear, "I knew it! How could I have ever trusted you?!"

"Save it, you worthless piece of shit."

He fired, straight into her skull.

Kurtis awoke the next morning to a warm but empty bed. The sound of running water from behind the closed bathroom door informed him Lara was in the shower.

--

* * *

--

Lara let the water pour down her, washing away the desert from her skin and the aches from her limbs. Reaching for a towel, she caught sight of the mirror.

I see you, the words written in steam informed her. There was a wicked smiley face just below the telekinetically written words. Grinning widely, she stepped bare-skinned from the shower and walked back into the bedroom, very pointedly using the towel only on her hair.

Smiling politely at Kurtis as if she were fully clothed as he tied his boots innocently on the bed, he returned it with an equally innocent grin, giving her a chaste peck on the cheek as he left.

Taking the steps towards the foyer energetically and with his jacket slung over one shoulder, he greeted the woman behind the counter unusually cheerfully for this time of the morning.

Snapping out of her sleepy reverie, she sat up fully.

"Can I help you?"

"You sure can," he smiled, "can I have two breakfasts sent up to room 117?"

"Of course, I will have room service up right away," the woman smiled prettily back at him, hand going to her wavy dark hair nervously.

"Thank you very much…" his eyes flicked imperceptibly towards the little gold badge on her chest, "…Amanda. That's a beautiful name," he finished with a smile before heading back to his room.

"Thank you- Mr.…" she trailed off, as he looked back, "I'm sorry but I don't have the advantage of a name badge…"

"…Mr. DeVille," he grinned, starting to walk away again, "at least that's what it was the last time I checked!"

--

* * *

--

"So where to now?" Lara asked, legs crossed on the bed, toast pausing on the way to her mouth.

"I have no idea," Kurtis replied, taking a bite from the toast in her hand and chewing thoughtfully as he leaned back, "anywhere away from here would be a safe bet. Even staying last night was a risk," he looked over at her grimly from his reclining position on the bed.

"I still don't get why Karel fled when you broke through into the river…"

"I dunno if you know this," he tilted his head slightly in its perusal of the ceiling, "but ever heard that demons can't cross a running stream?"

Lara instantly remembered an incident on an island off the coast of Ireland, once when she was young… a demon on a horse had captured Father Dunstan and forced her to find a way to stop the river so it could escape its 'prison'.

"Yes… I've heard it."

Kurtis sensed there was more behind those words but didn't push it. "Yeah, well if normal running water keeps demons in their place, just imagine what the river does to 'em."

"That's why he didn't come into it after you-"

"Yeah, and why he didn't stick around to see me break the river into that cavern. It must be the real reason why he didn't come after me to the Amazon... I was worried that'd happen, that's why I took the route that you obviously would've taken…"

"And at my house… he set those mercenaries on us rather then deal with us himself... why does he seem so reluctant to stand against you?"

"Like I said, it's not me he's worried about, it's the river. He knows I can control it. It's the border between all universes and they found the way to break through, use a conscious living vessel. As a person dies, they're connected with the river just as their soul enters it… like he used my father. It's a stronger connection with a Lux."

Lara's eyes traced his left hand as his fingers drummed against the duvet idly. Still deep in thought, he rolled off the bed and headed to the bathroom, light switch and shower invisibly turning on before the door had even opened.

Despite herself and her troubled thoughts, she smiled.

--

* * *

--

The woman at the reception desk was quite busy at this stage, but when a "Mrs. DeVille" left a message for the mysterious man from earlier, she sighed disappointedly.

Oh well, she thought, watching the dark haired woman bump into a short balding man and apologize, before she headed towards the library across the street.

Amanda DeVille sounded silly anyway.

Turning back to the middle-eastern man politely waiting on room registration, she immediately brightened up. As she bent her head to write his name into the logbook, she didn't see the dark haired woman return a short while later, moving quickly towards the stairs.

--

* * *

--

When Lara entered the room, Kurtis was pulling on a pair of khaki combats and a white t-shirt. Surprising he had much clothes left really, what he didn't wreck himself, she tore off him.

He slid his arms around her waist as she rifled through a black bag on the bed. She turned in his embrace to face him.

"Where'd you go? Where'd you get the black bag?" he questioned interestedly.

"Went to the library to do some research."

"Find anything?" his polite question hung in the air as he went to the bedside cabinet.

"Not much- I wasn't expecting anything really. Just something to take my mind off it all, you know-" she halted as he pointed a gun in her face.

Holding her hands up, her russet eyes widened in fear. "Kurtis! What are you-"

"Sit on the bed, hands over your head."

"If this is your idea of foreplay you've got another thing comi-"

"I said, SIT."

She was mentally shoved backwards onto the bed.

"You know," he reverted back to calm tones, "for a 'disgusting mortal', you've made yourself look kind of passable," his American drawl became clipped, tense. Moving closer, he pressed the silencer barrel to her forehead. She began to shake.

"You're Karel, aren't you?" she exclaimed, voice becoming high pitched with fear, "I knew it! How could I have ever trusted you?!"

"Save it, you worthless piece of shit."

He fired, straight into her skull.

--

* * *

--

**A/N:** Well, that was the 'mysterious' chapter which lurked on the Sani for years. Speaking of years, its been 4. I'm going to start working on this again, or else Kurtis will stop making his nightly visits. :(


End file.
